


And Back Again

by mythomusicians



Series: Main Mythos Trilogy [3]
Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, MAX (Musician), Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Alternate Universe - Mythology, Alternate Universe - Not Human, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angels, Demons, Gen, Magic, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Tulpas, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-10
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-05-01 00:21:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 51,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5185145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythomusicians/pseuds/mythomusicians
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tyler, Josh, and Blurry try to get help for Tyler's screw up, and Patrick just makes everything worse.<br/>Pete finds Max, but so does someone else, and things aren't quite going his way.<br/>*note, if you read the previous two fics you'll be a lot less confused xoxo</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Pete knew something was off when he'd watched the first video. He couldn't place it, but there was definitely something different about this kid. He was a great singer and performer, but that was only part of it. There was something else. The first video he had watched was rather entertaining. Max was really gifted. But the more he watched him, the more he saw himself in the younger performer. He knew from the start that he would definitely be interested in signing this kid to DCD2. Pete looked at some more of his videos, trying to figure out what seemed off to him. It wasn't until he'd clicked on Puppeteer that it finally hit him. Halfway through that video he _knew_ he had to ask if Max was interested in joining his label. Pete immediately sent him a message, asking if he would come to visit some time so they could discuss it if he was interested. After he pressed send, he flipped back to the video, watching it intently, looking for a sign more than vague hints in the lyrics.

There.

Right there.

There they were.

Pete sighed and leaned back in his seat, determined to do whatever it would take to convince this kid to accept his offer to join his label.

He might have screwed up helping Mikey all those years ago, but he'd be damned if he was going to let another one slip through his hands.

**::::**

"Tyler...?"

Tyler looked at the man in front of him with shock and fear. No, this couldn't be happening. Could it..?

"Blurry..?"

The person who wasn't Josh Dun nodded his head.

"H-how.. Are you okay?" He blinked, all but holding his breath. Blurry nodded again, looking more like a terrified kitten than the man whose body he was somehow now stuck in. "Oh, God, Blurry..."

"I don't.. I don't know what to do, Ty..."

Tyler thought he might hyperventilate, but he had to keep calm for Blurry. They had to figure this out. And he knew his Tulpa would already be on the brink of a panic attack, he couldn't add to it. Was he still _his_ Tulpa? God, he had no idea what this meant for Blurry, what this would do to Josh.

Oh.

Josh.

"Ty...?" He could hear the beginnings of a panic strain in Blurry's voice, no, Josh's voice? Tyler shook his head, trying to think, staying by the bed Josh had slept in.

"I'm right here. I'm just- I'm trying to come up with an idea- I don’t know what to do-”

Blurry pulled his hand out from under the bedsheets and grabbed Tyler’s, who looked back to him with concern written all over his face. “Don’t- Don’t worry, Ty, we’ll- we’ll figure it out, right..?”

Tyler nodded. “Yeah, we will. We have to..” He gripped his Tulpa’s hand tight. “Is Josh awake..?”

Blurry seemed to concentrate for a moment. “I don’t think so.. It doesn’t feel like it does when you’re awake..”

“Um.. try- just try to fall asleep, okay? I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere,” he reassured. “Just- you need to wake Josh up.”

Blurry nodded, trying very hard to be strong about the situation, and closed his eyes. After a minute, he peeked one open and looked at Tyler, who still held his hand. “...Promise..?”

Tyler gave him a soft smile. “Promise.” He tried to calm his own breathing so Blurry wouldn’t worry, and he knew that if his Tulpa were still in _him_ , he’d be able to tell how much of an act it was. His heart was racing, his mind firing on all pistons, and boy did he want to _scream_ until he passed out. Why had this happened? What had made Blurry transfer over to Josh? _How?_ His mind also wondered why Blurry’s markings were so different in Josh. Sure, Josh had different insecurities, but there had to be more to it than that. His eyes had gone _entirely_ black, and if the pupil hadn’t been just a touch darker, you’d never have known where he was looking. From a further distance, that would almost certainly be the case. Still, he held his best friend’s hand, through him falling back asleep, and did his best, sitting on the edge of the bed, to relax, and to think of what to do next.

**::::**

It took Blurry almost ten minutes, he estimated, to fall asleep listening to Tyler’s steady breathing. He was faking, he could tell, but he didn’t want him to worry. Tyler never breathed quite so rhythmically. Trying to relax, he wondered idly if Josh would even have a mindspace for Blurry to “fall asleep” to. He tried to copy Tyler’s breathing, but this body felt so foreign to him. It wasn’t Tyler’s, wasn’t his own, and he felt like an unwelcome intruder. He worried what Josh would think, if Josh was okay, but brought his focus back to Tyler in an attempt to take a nap. Even a light one, Blurry knew, would put him in Tyler’s mindspace before. Thankfully, it seemed to work on Josh, too.

Blurry felt the room around him fade and found himself standing in a smallish bedroom, muted in color, with two beds, one occupied and the other presumably set there for him by Josh’s subconscious. He looked down at himself, only to find he still looked like “Josh,” but at least he was wearing his favorite hoodie. It wasn’t much, but it was something, and in his situation, he’d take anything familiar he could get.

Blurry hesitated in waking the figure that was covered in blankets. What would Josh say? What would he do? Would he even know that it was him? What if he freaks out? What if he gets angry? What if he doesn't want him here? Given there wasn't much of a choice than to be here, though. It was hard without hearing Tyler's voice to ensure him everything would be okay. Right now, it was just him. He had to handle this on his own. He would have to explain everything to Josh. Blurry tried to calm himself down with deep breaths, but they didn't seem to be doing much. He felt alone again. Josh was right there, sure, but he was asleep and unaware. Blurry was alone, no other voices keeping him occupied and distracted. After what felt like ages, Blurry tried to swallow the lump in his throat and carefully reached a hand out to the blankets, pulling them away carefully to reveal Josh fast asleep. He hesitated again. Was it okay to wake him? What if he didn't want to be woken? Blurry closed his eyes and tried to keep himself grounded, not wanting to let Tyler down and be stuck in Josh's head. Not that it would be bad, but he felt so out of place here.

"J-Josh? Josh, wake-wake up.." Blurry hesitantly put a hand to the drummer's shoulder, shaking it gently.

At first there was no response, but before Blurry could repeat himself, he saw the other's eyes tiredly flutter open. "Mm...?" Blurry retracted his hand as Josh tiredly sat up, rubbing at his eyes.

Once he was a bit more awake, Josh looked around in slight confusion. This wasn't the hotel room that he and Tyler were staying in. His eyes fixated on the person in front of him, and he wasn't sure at all what to think. It looked like him. Maybe. It looked like him but totally different too. The features and the height were as if he was looking in a mirror, but everything else seemed totally out of place. Josh blinked in confusion as he looked at the other's face, which was dripping with worry and fear. After taking a minute to try and process everything, it finally hit him who this was.

"Blurry?"

At hearing his name, the one in question jumped in surprise, hesitantly nodding and trying not to fall deeper into his still oncoming panic attack. "I-Tyler-we d-don't know what happened, we went to go wake you up and-"

Blurry was interrupted by Josh holding an arm out to him, grabbing his wrist and having him sit beside him. He knew Blurry was panicking. He himself wasn't in a much better place right now, but he tried his best to put on a calm front for the other, not wanting Blurry to panic more.

Blurry instinctively leaned against Josh, calming down a bit at feeling that he wasn't alone anymore, taking deep shaky breaths. This wasn't Tyler. Tyler would always be the one here comforting him like this. This helped, but it still felt not right, and it took him a bit longer to calm from his panic. "We... We were gonna ask if you wanted breakfast, and-and I suddenly wound up looking at Tyler when I switched instead of looking at you."

Josh moved his hand to Blurry's back, rubbing it gently to make sure he stayed calm. The drummer was trying his best to take it all in as well as he could. He knew that if he showed any sort of worry, Blurry would fall back into his panicked state. He took this time to glance around the room again. "This is my mind space?" He remembered that's what Tyler seemed to always refer to it as. It was vastly different from the only time he'd had a glimpse of Tyler's when Brendon had pulled him in. It seemed like a pretty comfortable room of a house. There were the two beds, a fireplace-what good would that do, Blurry wondered-, a drum set, and various other items one would find in a bedroom. He noticed a door that seemed to have at least ten locks on it, preventing it from being opened, by the looks of it. Josh's curiosity wanted to know what was behind it. What was locked up in his mind? He felt more discomfort at seeing that rather than the fact Blurry was somehow in here too.

"I think so." Blurry managed to answer, eyes focusing on that door too. Tyler's mind space was so vast and open. Josh's seemed cozy but mysterious.

There was a bit of silence for a while before Josh spoke up. "You look different." He remarked. Sounded different too. Well. Familiar rather. He sounded like himself, which definitely threw him off. Was this what Tyler had felt when he'd first met Blurry?

"Y-yeah, I'm not sure why.." Blurry bit his lip unsurely, tugging at his hoodie sleeves. "But, uh, I'm still me. I think."

Josh took a moment to take in his friend's new appearance, more pointedly where the dark color was. When Tyler had explained to him the meaning of the black paint, before they were even aware of Blurry's existence, he had said the paint represented where he felt his fears and anxieties. Looking Blurry over, it seemed to carry through its meaning. The darkness was covering Blurry's nose down to his neck, and Josh himself was always more than a little insecure and anxious about speaking and talking, feeling like he couldn't breathe sometimes depending on the situation. So the markings made sense. What he didn't understand at all was the fact Blurry's eyes were totally black. Why weren't they red like they had been when he was with Tyler?

"Oh!" Blurry's voice broke Josh from his thoughts as he paid attention to the tulpa. "Tyler said he wanted you awake."

Josh furrowed his brow, unsure how to make that happen. He was awake wasn't he? Rather, his mind was awake, he guessed. But how was he supposed to force himself awake when he pretty much already was?

At seeing Josh's confusion, Blurry cut in to try his best at explaining what he had to do. Everything had come to him rather second nature. Explaining things would be difficult. "Just, uh, focus on waking up." Blurry frowned at his own explanation. "Or, uh, rather..." He tried to find the right words, but settled with making nondescript motions with his hands before trying to form words again. "You're awake, but you aren't _awake_. Just, mm, I don't know, uh, try getting your body to wake up?" Blurry gave that a shot, looking at Josh hopefully, hoping that he could figure it out for himself from that.

"You'll be here if I'm awake out there?" Josh asked. He wasn't sure if Blurry not being active would cause him to vanish or something. He wasn't exactly sure how the whole thing worked.

Blurry gave a small smile, appreciating his concern and leaning against him a bit more. "Yep. I'll still be here."

Josh nodded, closing his eyes and trying to make sense of what Blurry had said.

"Just let it come to you." He heard the other add in. "Like, will yourself to be awake."

The drummer nodded again and focused on trying to be awake to where he'd ended up falling asleep last night.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Tyler looking at him with worry, which earned a bit of relief from the other. It wasn't that he didn't like Blurry, he totally loved the guy, but seeing Tyler gave him that sense of normality that everything maybe wasn't totally bad.

"Josh? Josh, right?" Tyler asked, trying to confirm that it was him and not his tulpa, still holding his hand tightly. It was the appearance that Tyler was used to seeing on his friend, but Blurry's true appearance only showed when his emotions were heightened or he was comfortable, so it very well could be Blurry.

Josh nodded in response, earning a quiet sigh from Tyler.

"I-I already texted Dallon. He hasn't answered yet." Tyler looked down at his phone with a frown, still only seeing the 'delivered' under his message and not the 'read'.

_Josh? Can you hear me?_

At hearing the voice, Josh sat up and glanced around before realizing that must've been Blurry.

_Loud and clear._

He could almost hear Blurry smile at the response. _Let Tyler know I'm okay?_

"Blurry's okay." Josh relayed the message, which caused the overly worried Tyler to look away from his phone for a moment. "I can still hear him."

"We're gonna work this out, okay? We're gonna get in touch with Dallon and you'll be back where you belong." Tyler spoke mostly to Blurry, but also to try and convince himself. When Blurry had gone to sleep to speak with Josh, Tyler had felt so empty and the lack of Blurry's voice filling his head was unnerving. He'd grown so used to Blurry being there that even after weeks of this he couldn't imagine it without him. Tyler wanted to have him back and keep him safe. He was sure Josh could handle Blurry until they figured out what happened, but even having Blurry away from him for this short amount of time worried Tyler to no end. He desperately hoped this wouldn't be a permanent thing.

Desperately.


	2. Chapter 2

It took a little while longer of Tyler staring intently at his phone, but eventually the little “read” popped up underneath Tyler’s message, and it showed Dallon was typing.  A few seconds later, his text appeared: _Calling you._

And he did.

Tyler’s phone buzzed, Dallon’s ID showing up, and Tyler answered almost immediately.

“Hey,” he greeted.

“Hey, is everything okay?”

“Uh, no. No, not- um, Dallon.”

“...yeah?”

“Blurry’s.. somehow, well, he’s in Josh.”

“In.. like, in Josh, as in, not in you?”

Tyler shuffled his feet against the bed, Josh watching and listening, able to hear Dallon’s voice come through the receiver. “Generally speaking, that’s what I mean, yeah.”

Tyler did his best to explain what had happened to Dallon, and Dallon admitted that this sounded a bit beyond his scope. “But,” he offered. “I think I know someone who can help. It sounds like this is a dark magic thing, right? Like, the leftover demon powers?” Dallon asked.

“That’s, uh, I mean, it makes the most sense, right?”

“We’ll see you guys in a few weeks for tour. But, uh, call Patrick Stump. He might be able to help, but he’d want advance notice.”

Tyler furrowed his brow. “Patrick Stump?” Josh shifted slightly. He hadn’t expected that.

“Yeah, but please tell him I told you to call. I don’t want you to get skinned.”

Tyler gulped. Why would Patrick skin anyone? He was one of the nicest guys Tyler had met. But, Tyler supposed, if Patrick could help, and Dallon couldn’t, then he must know something interesting. “Yeah, I will. Thanks, Dallon.”

“You guys’ll get through it. I swear, you’re built for trouble and for perseverance.” Tyler smiled, said goodbye, and hung up.

“So..”

“So..?” Josh questioned.

“Want to get breakfast, then call Patrick?”

_You okay, Blurry?_ Josh asked.

_I’m, uh, I’m fine. Just- pretend I’m not here for now.. I’ll try to rest a while._

Josh nodded. “Yeah, breakfast sounds good.”

**::::**

It took Blurry longer than it probably should have to realize it might be odd for him to be seeing Josh’s life the way he was used to seeing Tyler’s. He sat on the bed for a while, leaning back against the headboard, watching the world through Josh’s eyes. After a while, he decided he might as well get up and take in his surroundings. Though it was no more physically comfortable than the sand dunes of Tyler’s mind, it _looked_ more comfortable, and in the end, that was half the battle of comfort, wasn’t it? It was a few minutes before he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, and he was immediately both drawn to it and terrified. He should be the only thing moving here, shouldn’t he? Then again, his only experience was with Tyler’s mind. Josh’s was sure to be very, very different. He looked to where the movement had come from.

His brow creased as he noticed a flick of.. of a _tail_? He took a couple steps towards it, and the thing jumped on top of the bed opposite the one Josh had been sleeping in.

A cat.

It was a cat.

Of _course_ Josh’s mind had a cat.

A cat...

A _cat_!

Blurry had never pet a cat! Sure, it wouldn’t feel like the real thing, but it would be a start!

“Josh, you have a cat in your mindspace!” He exclaimed excitedly, and listened as Josh told Tyler what Blurry had said. And, oh, deciding to mention _how cute it sounded_ coming from Blurry. Blurry felt his face flush, and saw Tyler giggle slightly over his waffles.

“You know he can hear you, right? He’s in your _head_ , Josh.” Tyler said, and Blurry could tell Josh’s face got a little pink.

It was unusual to see Tyler from this end, to watch him do things like eat and talk to Josh.

It was kind of eye-opening. Because add red eyes and a dark neck, and that’s what he looked like when he was in Tyler’s body. He shook his head, deciding to think about this later. He figured he’d probably have plenty of time.

_Is there really a cat there?_ Blurry heard Josh ask him.

“Yeah!” Blurry realized he kind of forgot about the cat, who was sitting quietly on the bed, purring. He reached his hand out and pet it, and despite the general lack of feeling, it definitely felt some kind of soft.

So soft. “Josh, the kitty is soft!” Blurry said, quietly, but with an audible exclamation point.

_Cats usually are_ , Josh replied warmly as he ate his hotel waffle.

Blurry smiled, petting the cat, letting it nuzzle into his hand. Of course the cat would be friendly. This was Josh’s mind cat, Josh’s ideal cat.

_You okay?_ Josh asked after a while of radio silence.

“Yeah,” Blurry replied, now sitting on the bed with the cat in his lap, watching Josh and Tyler chat, both of them trying not to worry, trying to ignore their concerns, enjoy the situation as much as they could. Blurry knew Tyler well enough to recognize when he was trying to put on a front, and he could feel Josh redirecting his thoughts to the positive side of things. “Yeah, I’ve got this kitty, and I’m not alone. I’m good, for now. Tell Tyler, please? Tell him I love him?”

_You could just tell him yourself, you know._

“I know, but, I like petting this cat, and I wanna keep myself distracted for now. Please, Josh?”

_Of course._

So Blurry watched as he did, and Tyler smiled, really genuinely smiled, though it was a small one.

“Thanks, Josh.” Blurry smiled softly.

_Yeah, no problem. Are you.. smiling?_

Blurry nodded, “Yeah, you feel it?”

_Yeah, it’s.. weird. Not a bad weird. Just a different weird._

“A lot of this is a different weird.. I just hope it’s not gonna turn into a bad weird.” Blurry confided quietly, to the cat and to Josh.

_Me too._

**::::**

Pete had received almost an immediate response from Max about coming to visit and check out his label. It put a smile on the older one's face, reading about how eager the other seemed to be about getting signed. He'd told the younger man that he was free whenever, shot him over the address, and soon enough he got a response saying that Max would be on the next plane from Brooklyn to LA.

 

As Max stepped off the airplane that had just touched down in LA, he looked around the terminal for where Pete said he would be meeting him to pick him up. He offered to get him himself, how freakin' cool was that! Max took a moment to calm himself down and not seem like he was as big of a fan of Fall Out Boy and Pete and their work as he really was, not wanting to make it seem too awkward or anything. He'd listened to their stuff while he was growing up, and they were definitely a big influence on him getting into the music scene. Max held tightly to a physical copy of his EP that he'd burned to a disc prior to leaving his home, looking around for where Pete would be. It wasn't exactly like it was easy to spot someone of below average height in the crowded terminal. He'd eventually found him off the side of a large crowd, trying not to attract too much attention to himself.

"Yo, Pete!" At seeing him, the younger man hurried over to him, clearing his throat as he stood before him, trying not to just seem like an obsessed fan or anything.

Nah, he was _cool_.

He was gonna play it _cool_.

"Hey, Max, yeah?" Pete greeted, shaking his hand. "Dude, I love your stuff. Knew I had to ask you to visit once I heard it."

"Ah, shit man, really?" Max laughed a bit nervously. "Means a lot, coming from you."

Pete waved it off and grabbed one of Max's bags for him. "Come on, I got a car outside. We can talk on the way."

Max nodded as Pete started walking off, quickly hurrying to keep up with his pace. "Yeah, man, lead the way!"

They found their way to the car, and as Pete was driving, he couldn't help but be a bit curious. "You thirsty at all? I've got some stuff in a cooler in the backseat." Pete motioned to the back.

Max looked in the back curiously before he shifted a bit awkwardly, Pete noticed, and he answered. "Nah, I'm all good, thanks though."

Pete couldn't help but smile a bit to himself at Max's reaction as he kept driving. "Well if you're thirsty at all, feel free to grab something."

Max nodded before breaking his gaze away from the cooler and trying to make conversation with Pete about his music on their way.

**::::**

It wasn't a very long drive to Pete's place, and he'd learned on the way that _damn_ Max could talk for hours on end. The kid was rather talkative, which he supposed wasn't bad, but some quiet now and then wouldn't be terrible would it?

Pete helped Max bring his things inside, the two of them discussing prior that he could spend some time here in LA with him while they sorted out music stuff, so Max had packed nearly a week's worth of clothes, just in case.

"So, your music is fantastic and I think I speak for everyone on the label when I say we'd be honored to have you join us." Pete said, taking a seat on the couch, Max sitting across from him on a chair.

"Seriously? Like, seriously seriously?" Max was still in shock that Pete of all people had reached out to him to give him this opportunity.

"Yeah, of course." Pete grinned, leaning back in his seat a bit. "So what about you? What's your origin story?"

"My-?"

"How'd you end up like this?"

Max frowned a bit in confusion. "Well, uh, born upstate but grew up in the city-"

"No, no." Pete shook his head. "I saw the story you were telling in that one video of yours. Puppeteer. Was that how it happened?"

Max's frown deepened. "...how what happened?" He shifted a bit uncomfortably again, and Pete noticed he seemed to not want to talk much anymore.

"You sure you're not thirsty? I've got plenty to spare, man." Pete offered, raising an eyebrow at Max. Max went to go speak but the other stopped him, pointing at him. "When's the last time you shaved those things down? You're gonna give yourself away, dude."

"I-" Max closed his mouth, stopping himself from speaking more. Was he really that obvious? It's been a few weeks since it'd happened, he thought he had been passing as normal just fine. Did Pete really know? Is that why he called him here? To expose him?

At seeing the fear pass through Max's eyes, Pete continued. "It's fine, man. It's what we are. But you should think about not exposing your fangs like that." He shrugged before getting up from his seat and heading towards the kitchen. "You sure you don't want anything?"

Max sat in stunned silence for the first time since he'd met up with Pete, trying to collect his thoughts. " _We?_ " He managed to pick up on, eyeing Pete suspiciously as he walked back into the living room with two cups, offering one to Max.

"Look, Trick's comin' over soon and if you're thirsty at all I can't risk you biting on my friend." Pete said as Max took the cup from him.

"Sl-slow down for a sec." Max shook his head, still trying to understand everything. "You said _we_. What _we_ are."

Pete took a drink from his own cup before grinning over-wide at Max.

Not only did Max now see the fangs on the older one, but they were lightly coated in the blood that Pete had just drank from the cup.

Max's mouth hung open a bit at he tried to process the information that was presented to him. "You're..."

"Been like this for over a decade." Pete downed the rest of the drink, setting the empty cup on the coffee table beside him. "You?"

Max looked down into his own cup, brain still working through everything. The smell of the blood before him wasn't helping much though. Although he had made sure to drink up full a day prior, the blood in front of him was too tempting, and he found himself drinking it down quickly before he could give an answer to Pete.

“Um, about two months or so, I guess. The first few weeks or so were.. kind of a blur, for me.” He looked down at the empty cup in his hands, trying not to think about those days.   
“So no one claimed you, either, then.” Pete asked, more of a statement.

Max looked at him questioningly. “Claimed?” Pete nodded.

“Yeah, like, normal vampires, ones that belong to a growing brood,” Pete wanted to hiss at the term, but held it back, exchanging it for a scowl. “They turn people on purpose and claim them, teach them.”

Max nodded to show he was listening.

“You and I were turned by rogue, broodless vampires. That’s what happened to me, at least. I suspect you as well.” Pete frowned, then continued. “No one to teach us what we can do. Most of us waste no time in getting on the bad side of broods, getting killed for the sake of secrecy. On the plus side, Max, you’re young.” Pete allowed a small smile to find its way onto his face. “And I’m certainly no ancient master, but I can help you, especially while you navigate the professional world as one of us.”

Max blinked. Was Pete offering to both _sign him_ and _teach him_? “I-, uh-” Max stuttered slightly. So much for cool. “H-how would you teach me? I mean,-”

“Well we have a lot to talk about if and when you sign the the contract,” Pete tilted his head towards the table where a folder sat, presumably containing said contract. “Part of your contract would, of course, mean you have to allow me to mentor you. We can consider that both professionally and vampirically, but I’m not going to put the vampire mumbo-jumbo in print. No one else needs to know about that.” Pete winked and smirked. “If you have no other set-in-stone plans, I’d actually like for you to accompany us on our tour in a few weeks. Not as a performer, but so we can work on stuff.”

Max eyed Pete warily. “Stuff?”

“Yeah. Stuff. All of it. Music, bloodsucking,-”

“Speaking of the blood,” Max interjected.

“Thirsty again already?”

Max shook his head. “No, no, but like, dude,” He was already up to calling Pete dude? Could he do that? Could he call _Pete Wentz_ dude? “How is it that I just drank blood from a cup?”

Pete gave him his best shit-eating grin. “Haven’t sucked on a human since 2005.” _Technically, I’m not lying_ , he reminded himself as he thought of Patrick. “It’s plasma. I might be a bit of a felon.”

Max’s eyes widened. “What.”

“I steal some blood from blood banks. It’s either that or, like, potentially kill or turn people. Not really interested in that after..” he trailed off, leaving it open ended.

“After what?” Max questioned. This kid was wide-eyed and curious about everything, Pete thought. _A lot like I should’ve been._

“After..” the older man sighed. “After a big mistake. I mean, I wasn’t all that interested in hurting people _before_ then, but,” he shrugged.

“So, you’re telling me,” Max turned his body even more towards Pete. “I can do this- _be_ this, without killing people? Or, or-”

“Or condemning them to a fate worse than death,” Pete finished, a pall of darkness spreading over his face. He hated what he was, there was no denying that. Not ever. After all this time, though, he didn’t quite hate _himself_ anymore. He was doing his best. That’s what mattered. He, at least, was fucking _trying_. “Yeah. You can. It’s not easy, but you can.” He took a deep, very unnecessary breath before attempting to lift his spirits again. “Let’s go over the contract, before we get too sidetracked.”

Max nodded as he went to open the folder.   
If he was going to sign this, he’d have plenty of time to learn from Pete.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gonna try to update this as frequently as I can, so we'll see how long it takes before the next chapter heads on up. I don't want to keep you guys waiting for too long!!  
> Also. We apologize ahead of time for some uh 'shippy' stuff that might happen throughout this. As we were writing, we slowly fell deeper into a ship we didn't think we'd ship, but now it's too late and it's already written so oops :^) hopefully that doesn't bother you guys too much!  
> (feel free to take a stab at what it is, I'm sure it isn't hard to guess lol)
> 
> Anyways, thanks as always for sticking around, it literally means the world to see that people actually read this series!  
> xoxo


	3. Chapter 3

“It feels so weird, man.” Josh said as he and Tyler packed their suitcases to go home for a few weeks. “It’s like, I’m still alone, but I’m not.”

Tyler just laughed slightly. “ _You_ feel weird?” He sighed, sitting down in the office chair in their room. “ _I_ feel weird.” He looked over at Josh, who just sat at the edge of his bed and took out his phone, presumably to text someone or check Twitter. “I bet Blurry feels the weirdest,” he thought idly. It had only been a few hours since the incident, and they were taking a small break from things before getting back to business and calling Patrick, but Tyler missed Blurry. “Hey, Josh,” he said quietly. Josh looked over to him and raised his brows, his lips pursed just slightly. “Is it cool with you if I just, like, talk to Blurry for a few minutes?”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course.” Was all Josh needed to say before Tyler saw his features change and felt a warm hug lifting him up out of the chair.

“I miss you, Ty.” Blurry hugged Tyler almost desperately. Tyler hugged back, admittedly feeling a bit strange hugging Blurry in the real world, and in the body of his best friend.

“I miss you too, man,” Tyler pulled back. “It’s too quiet without you.”

Blurry smiled softly, and Tyler noticed how different it looked on Josh’s face. It wasn’t Josh’s smile, it was definitely Blurry’s; timid but bursting with genuineness. Scared, but real, honest. Tyler sat him back down on the bed, but remained standing himself.

“How’s it been in there?” Tyler questioned gently.

Blurry looked down slightly, averting his eyes, but Tyler almost didn’t notice. His black eyes were so difficult to keep track of. “It’s, uh, I mean, it’s been p-pretty good. It’s different, though. I-I’m just trying to treat it like a vacation, you know? From- From your head. If I can keep myself from treating it like a problem, maybe I’ll last longer before I have a- a panic attack or something.”

Tyler nodded understandingly. “Well, I’ll be driving us to the airport. If anything happens, Josh can take a nap or something to help you. You’ll be okay.”

Blurry looked up at his other half, hopeful. “You promise, Ty?”

Tyler gave his Tulpa a reassuring smile. “I promise, Blurry. You sure you’re alright in there? Even with Josh in your head?”

Thankfully, Blurry managed a small laugh. “He stuck his tongue out at you, Ty,” to which Tyler responded by sticking his tongue out back at Josh.

_Hey, get on his butt about calling Patrick for me, will ya?_ Blurry heard Josh’s voice echo in his head.

“Tyler, Josh wants you to call Patrick, like, now.”

Tyler raised an eyebrow. “He couldn’t come out and tell me himself?”

Blurry smiled as he heard Josh reply. _You guys deserve time together._

“Nope,” was all Blurry managed. Josh was so good to them. He liked Josh.

“Yeah, yeah,” Tyler pulled out his phone. “I’ll call him.” Tyler sat down beside Blurry on the bed as he scrolled through his contacts to find Patrick's number.

Blurry leaned a bit against Tyler as he held the phone up to his ear, having found the number he was looking for.

The phone rang for a few moments before Tyler heard the other line pick up. "Tyler?"

"Ah, yeah, hey." Tyler started, not entirely sure where to go from here.

"This is a surprise. How're you doing?"  
  
Tyler hesitated before answering. "Honestly? Uh, not too great. Which is why I'm calling. Are you busy at all?" He didn't want to keep Patrick from anything important if he was doing anything.   
  
After a moment of shuffling around on the other end, he finally got an answer. "I'm just visiting Pete but it's fine, he has another guest that can keep him entertained." Patrick excused himself as he headed from the living room to the kitchen, figuring whatever Tyler had called for must be important. And if it's important, he didn't feel right discussing it with others in the area. "How can I help you?"  
  
"Josh and I ran into an issue, and Dallon said that you would know more about how to help than he could." Tyler said, remembering heeding the angel's warning about telling him that he was told to call prior to letting him know what happened.   
  
"An issue?" Patrick frowned. "What kind of issue?" Dallon had told him to call? Why would Dallon-  
  
"It's really a long story, uh, but as simple as I can get it, for starters, Blurryface is a real being." Tyler looked at his friend leaning against him, looking interested in the conversation his other half was having on the phone. "A tulpa that was created in my mind."  
  
Patrick took a moment to process this, going through the databases in his brain before finding out what exactly a tulpa meant. "Okay.." How did this involve him?  
  
"I didn't know he existed until a few months back, uh, with Brendon's help. Well, not-help, but-" Tyler sighed, trying to get his thoughts back on track. Blurry grabbed Tyler's free hand to help him keep focused, not wanting Tyler to end up freaking out about the situation like he and Josh quietly were. "Brendon possessed me and we found Blurry in my mind-"  
  
"Brendon _what_?"  
  
Tyler frowned a bit. Brendon didn't exactly keep it a secret from him, heck he seemed eager to share what he was, he'd just assumed that Patrick had known considering how close the two bands were. "Brendon's a demon, I thought you would've known-"  
  
"A what!" Patrick's surprise wasn't hidden. "And you let him possess you? Oh, God, Tyler, no. Possessions aren't good. Nothing good comes from them." Patrick tried to push away the memories of his own possession as he continued, expressing his concern for Tyler. "Is Brendon there? Is he still in your mind?"  
  
"What? No, no this happened a few months ago. He's long gone." Tyler laughed a bit hesitantly. "But some of his magic was left behind."  
  
"Post possession powers." Patrick's response was automatic. He understood now why Dallon had wanted him to call instead of handling the issue himself.   
  
"Yeah, that's what Dallon had called it. And, y'know, everything was pretty okay for a while. I was aware of Blurry's existence due to Brendon's actions, and because of the leftover powers, I was able to keep up the line of communication with Brendon once he'd left."  
  
Patrick nodded in understanding. "Okay, that would make sense."  
  
"But, yeah, Josh and I were used to Blurry being a part of me and things kinda settled down, but uh, we ran into an issue this morning that we think has to do with those leftover powers, and now instead of being in my head, Blurry is in Josh's." Tyler squeezed Blurry's hand as he mentioned it, and Blurry just squeezed in return.   
  
"That... That would probably be a problem." Patrick sighed.   
  
"I-I'm sorry. I'm just-I don't mean to sound rude at all, but how can you help with this? Dallon didn't really explain much about it all." Tyler admitted, unsure how Patrick would play into the solution of all of this.  
  
"Have you watched those Youngblood Chronicles videos that we posted a few years ago?"  
  
Tyler frowned, confused by the sudden change in topic. "No. Was I supposed to?" What did this have to do with anything? What would watching some music videos do to help them?  
  
"Alright, do me a favor and watch those. It's much easier to have you watch rather than explain it all here or else you'll probably be here for a few hours." Patrick said.   
  
"Okay.." Tyler was even more confused at this point of what Patrick's role in all of this was.   
  
"Call me back once you watch 'em, yeah?"  
  
And with that, Tyler agreed, said his goodbyes, and hung up. He stood up from his seat on the hotel bed, going to dig through his bag to retrieve his laptop.   
  
"So what's the verdict?" Blurry asked curiously, not having been able to hear the whole conversation.   
  
"Patrick wants us to watch something." He sat back down beside his friend, opening up YouTube on his computer and finding the video Patrick had told him about.   
  
"That's a long video." Blurry commented.   
  
Tyler nodded as he full-screened the video. "Movie time."

**::::**

Pete saw the door to the living room open and Patrick came in, white aura tinged slightly with the yellow of worry. Max, thankfully, had gone to the bathroom as Patrick arrived and had yet to return. Pete had shrugged it off as nerves. As soon as Max came back, though, Pete knew he’d question Patrick’s aura.

“Everything okay, man?” Pete asked as his friend shoved his phone into his pocket.

“Not sure.”

“Who was it, anyway? What’d they want?” Pete inquired.

Patrick sighed at Pete’s direct questions. “It was Tyler Joseph, and he and Josh are having supernatural problems.” Patrick rolled his eyes. “Dallon apparently told him to call me.” Pete stared concernedly at the angel, but Patrick continued before Pete could open his mouth. “Do you have to ask so pointedly?”

Pete’s stare changed from concern to fake-hurt. “Yes, of course,” the vampire smirked. “So, supernatural problems?” Pete asked.

“Yes,” Patrick answered. The two heard Pete’s bathroom door open and stilled, waiting for Max to come back.

He entered from the hallway and smiled at Patrick before doing a quick double take. Pete opened his mouth to explain, lie, something, but Patrick spoke up himself, raising his hand in greeting before standing and offering it to shake. “Hi, Max, right? I’m an angel, you’re a vampire.”

Max shook Patrick’s hand wide-eyed, eyes darting from Pete to Patrick and back again. “H-hi.” He sat in his seat again, opposite the two best friends. “Is this, like, for serious?”

Pete smirked. “Yeah, Pat, why didn’t you tell me?” he gawked at Patrick, who merely stuck his tongue out at the vampire.

“ _Very funny_ , Pete. And yeah, I really am, for serious!” Patrick beamed at Max.

Max shook his head. “So like, I mean, I assume Pete told you I was a vampire-”

“And that you signed the contract.” Patrick nodded. “So that means he trusts you.”

Max breathed out a sigh. “So you _don’t_ just go around introducing yourself like that, then.”

Patrick laughed quietly. “No, can’t say I do. But you can see my aura, so,” he shrugged. “You’d have asked me anyway.”

“And this motherfucker here can’t lie, go ahead, ask him anything.” Pete fucking _giggled_ like Patrick’s inability to lie was a parlor trick or something.

“Uh, can I?” Max asked Patrick, who rolled his eyes but nodded.

“I’d rather you not get in the habit of it, like this idiot here.” He cautioned.

Max frowned, what kind of question do you ask an _angel_? What kind of question do you ask _Patrick Stump_? “Um, do-do you like my music?” _Fuck_ that was a _terrible_ question to ask. As soon as it had exited his mouth, he realized he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer.

Patrick twisted his face into an apologetic frown, and Max braced himself for the bad news. “Actually, I’m sorry. I haven’t had a chance to hear it.”

“Seriously?!” Pete frowned at his friend. “I sent you a link to his stuff a few days ago!”

Max released his held in breath as he watched the two start bickering like an old married couple. This was indeed a very, very strange meeting. But with Pete, what else did he expect?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm bad at updating, sorry I got distracted by going to see an All Time Low concert oops rip in pieces me.  
> Anyways, I know this is a bit of a shorter chapter, but like two or three chapters from now is gonna be a really long-ass chapter because there was no good place to start a new chapter in that so that'll make up for the length of this one I hope!  
> Hope you guys are still enjoying reading! I swear I'll try to update this sooner next time ahaha  
> xoxo


	4. Chapter 4

Tyler stared at the screen, Blurry next to him, as the credits of Fall Out Boy's Youngblood Chronicles started rolling.

"Ty, that was so cool!" Blurry exclaimed, fully aware that Josh was pretty much freaking out about how cool it was, too.

"Yeah," Tyler said quietly, mostly stunned.

"Josh said we should watch it again sometime!" Blurry smiled. He noticed Tyler's quietness after a minute, though, and went to swap out with Josh.

_He's worried, Josh. Talk to him?_

_Can't you?_ Josh asked back.

_I... Yeah, but.. I've been out long enough. He's your best friend.._

_Alright, alright. Lemme out._

Josh set down the cat that had been in his lap and felt himself tug back into reality, laying flat on his stomach next to Tyler, sitting cross legged in front of the laptop.

"Hey, Tyler, you okay?"

Tyler seemed almost surprised when he heard his name. Honestly, he hadn't been paying any attention, his mind wandering and wondering.

"What?"

"Are you alright?" Josh repeated.

"I, yeah, I think so," he tore his eyes away from the screen to give Josh a reassuring smile. "It _was_ cool."

Josh smiled back at him. "Blurry was worried about you."

"Well, tell him _I_ should be the worried one here," he gave a light laugh before sighing and laying backwards into the bed, pulling out his phone. "I have to call Patrick."

He dialed Patrick and stared at the ceiling, waiting for him to pick up.

"Tyler?"

"I watched the video. That's.. That's all real?" He sat up and hunched over, leaning his elbow on his leg.

"For the most part, yeah. I mean, we dramatized a couple things to make it look cooler, but-"

"Last I checked you have both hands." Tyler frowned.

"Gimmie a sec-" Tyler heard Patrick tapping his phone, and soon enough after, Josh's phone meowed with a text from Patrick. "Look at the picture."

Josh opened the text to a picture of Patrick, presumably right now, waving at the phone with no hand to speak of, the other holding the phone. "Holy crap, Tyler." Josh turned the picture to him.

"How do I see you with two all the time? How are you playing guitar?" Tyler asked, looking wide-eyed at the selfie.

"Let's just chalk it up to magic," Patrick responded. It wasn't a lie, it _was_ magic, along with a really good prosthetic Joe had helped design.

Tyler shook his head in disbelief. "Wow, um. Okay. So, how does know this stuff help? I assume you were possessed or something? So you have post possession powers too, then? Or-"

"Slow down, man, one question at a time." Patrick gave a light hearted laugh.

"Sorry, um, so how can you help, exactly?" Tyler shifted slightly, finding himself leaning against Josh, who was now sitting up.

"Long story short, I'm an angel, but I also have post possession powers. So I can use some dark magic."

"Really? An angel?" Tyler asked, Josh's eyes widened.

"Is it that surprising..?"

"I mean, I don't really know anything about angels, but I kind of figured they didn't do that whole swearing thing."

"To be honest I'm not sure if I'm the exception because of my dark magic, or if that's just a Dallon thing," Patrick mused.

"So, can you really help us?" Tyler figured help from Patrick would probably be the best way to figure this out. He was an angel _and_ he had those post possession powers like Tyler has. That's gotta be good grounds for helping sort everything out.

"Yeah, I'd like to think I could." Patrick nodded to himself. "Can you manage for another two weeks? We'll all be on tour soon, so it'll just be easier to figure things out when we're together, yeah?" He supposed if need be they could meet somewhere sooner, but it didn't seem to be a major emergency as far as Patrick was understanding. At least not right now.

"Two weeks?" Tyler looked to Josh, who gave a shrug as a response. Tyler and Josh were going to be spending the next two weeks apart with family before heading back on tour again. Would being away from Blurry that long be okay, Tyler worried.

"It'll be like Blurry's sleepin' over at my place, it's fine." Josh insisted, seeing the worry on Tyler's face.

"Al-alright. Two weeks." Tyler confirmed.

"I'll see you then. If anything changes, keep in contact." Patrick said before saying his goodbyes and leaving the two, three rather, of them to their own. He left the kitchen he had entered once again for privacy, and saw Pete and Max seeming to say their goodbyes to each other as well.

"The cab should be here shortly." Pete said to the younger vampire, who nodded in response. "You can come back tomorrow and we can work on some music stuff. And vampire stuff." Pete grinned at him.

Max grinned in return, still finding it really odd that there was someone he could share this experience with. Someone that not only has been going through what he'd started going through, but also to help him out. And on top of it all, as if that wasn't relief enough, Pete Wentz also liked his music enough to sign him to his label. He was still in amazement about that factor alone. "Thanks so much for this, dude."

"No dude, thanks for accepting." Pete laughed a bit, having been slightly worried that this wouldn't have ended as well as it had. In the back of his mind he worried that Max would have lashed out at him in anger like Mikey had when he had offered him help. Pete absentmindedly brought his hand to the side of his lower neck at the thought before shaking it off and saying goodbye to Max as he left to go get in the taxi that was now waiting outside.

Once Max had left, Patrick raised an eyebrow in Pete's direction. "Are you sure you want to help him? You haven't exactly taught anyone how to be a vampire before. And even now, you don't exactly embrace the vampire lifestyle." Patrick said, sitting down on the couch.

Pete shrugged in response, sitting down beside him. "I don't want him to learn everything on his own like I had to, dude. And his stuff is good, so..." The vampire shrugged again. "So what exactly is going on with the pilot boys?"

"I don't really know the full extent, but Tyler is trying to deal with post possession powers."

"What? Tyler was possessed?" Pete raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Yeah." Patrick frowned, "by Brendon. Brendon Urie. He's a demon, Pete."

Pete shrunk a bit in his seat awkwardly. He'd known Brendon was a demon for the past two years and never got around to telling the guys since they were dealing with their own demon stuff. "Oh, yeah? That's-uh-a surprise."

Patrick went to continue before stopping himself and giving Pete a look. "You don't sound surprised."

"I-" Pete sighed. "Brendon has been a demon for a couple years now."

"You _knew_?" Patrick frowned at him.

"That's why he never turned when I bit him during all that crap." Pete admitted. "He didn't want to tell you guys because he thought if you knew he was a demon you'd assume he was like Mephisto."

Patrick was more or less speechless. "He was a demon when all of that was happening?" He didn't really like thinking much about his own possession. He tried his best to block those memories out of his mind.

Pete nodded. "He didn't want you guys to skin him alive." He added.

"But how long did he expect that to stay a secret? We're going on tour with Panic! and the twenty one pilots boys in just a few weeks."

The vampire gave a shrug. "He probably hasn't given that much thought, honestly. You know how Brendon can be." He laughed a bit. Brendon was definitely one of those people who lived in the moment rather than thinking about future events.

Patrick considered giving Brendon a call to confront him about what he was but he decided against it. He and the rest of his band were probably getting ready to leave for tour rehearsals, like he and Pete and Andy and Joe should be doing too. He was shaken from his thoughts when he felt Pete lean against him, and when he looked at the vampire he gave him another frown, knowing exactly what he wanted. "Pete-"

"Oh come on, Trick, it's been a few weeks since I've done it." Pete just frowned in return. "It won't be much, dude."

Patrick sighed and gave him a look before shortly giving in, unfurling his wings and using them to push Pete closer. "Fine. Fine, whatever." It wasn't a totally pleasant experience for him, no matter how many times they had done this, but he knew it was good for Pete, and he couldn't deny him that.

Pete took that as an 'okay' to move to his usual spot on Patrick's lap, letting the the angel's wings engulf him and hold him in place as he rested his head against Patrick's shoulder, listening to the blood that was flowing beneath his skin. He let his own wings out to hold Patrick in return, and after a moment of this he moved his hands to the angel's shoulders, gripping them somewhat tightly as he finally sunk his teeth into the crook of his neck.

The angel winced as his large wings just held to Pete tighter, trying to make himself relax. He trusted Pete wholly. He knew Pete wouldn't drain him dry. But it didn't make the whole experience much better for him. The pain that came from the initial bite would be something that would always be painful.

Over the past couple years of doing this, Pete had trained himself to enjoy the slight burning feeling that the white magic tinged blood made him feel. It wasn't exactly easy, but now it felt to him less of a burning, but rather just a warm feeling that was filling him up. The angel's blood had a huge calming effect on him, opposed to the dark magic tinged blood which always left him on edge. Which is why he found himself stopping as soon as the first drop of the dark magic blood hit his tongue. As amazing as it tasted, he didn't want to be on edge the rest of the day because of it.

He carefully removed his fangs from Patrick's neck, gliding his tongue across the wound to stop the bleeding. "Thanks, Patrick." He said quietly as he rested his head against the angel's shoulder once more.

Patrick didn't answer, the vampiric venom not able to change him due to the fact he was a being of white magic, but the venom left him more or less paralyzed until it worked its way through his system.

"I'm sorry I always put you through this, man. This part can't be pleasant." Pete rambled on, knowing that Patrick preferred it if Pete kept talking so he wouldn't focus on the fact that he couldn't move any part of his body. "But hey, I told you I wouldn't take too much yeah?" Pete laughed a bit quietly, silently proud of himself for showing that much restraint to stop himself from continuing to drink Patrick's blood. "Besides, now you get to see me with those wings you like."

That earned a bit of a smile from the angel as the venom started leaving his system slowly.

Pete laughed a bit again, moving his head off of Patrick's shoulder to look at their wings. It always amazed him, every time, to see how Patrick's wings would turn as black as night, and his own would be golden. He stretched his wings out a bit, as much as being clamshelled in Patrick's wings would allow, before wrapping them around the angel again.

"Those gold wings always look better than the black ones." Patrick finally said. Although it was normal to see the black leathery wings on the other, the golden ones just sat better with Patrick. It made him think that Pete really wasn't a being of darkness like he truly was.

"Can you move?"

"A bit." Patrick answered, slowly letting his wings's grip on the vampire drop, just draping them over the other.

"Are you okay?"

Patrick smiled again at Pete's question, appreciating his concern every time. "No Pete. I'm a fucking vampire now too."

Pete rolled his eyes and rested his head against his shoulder again. "Sorry for being worried.." He mumbled quietly.

"I'm alright, Pete." Patrick reassured him, moving his arms to give Pete a hug. "Kinda tired now, though."

Pete nodded in understanding, hugging the angel in return before going to move off his lap, but Patrick's wings just kept him in place.

"Come on, take a nap with me." Patrick insisted, stifling a yawn. Having his blood taken like that always left him tired, and a sleepy Patrick was admittedly more cuddly and affectionate, so who was Pete to argue with that? Although sleepy Patrick versus tired-as-hell Patrick should never be confused. One was cute, the other was a grumpy mess.

"Alright, okay." Pete mumbled, getting comfy on his lap with Patrick's blanket-like wings covering him.

It wasn't long before Patrick was out like a light. This whole thing was a common thing, as strange as a vampire drinking from an angel seemed. It benefitted them both though. Pete didn't need to drink from humans and the blood calmed him down, and on the other hand, Patrick would be able to use his dark magic easier if he ever had a need to use it. The whole thing always brought them closer together. An angel and a vampire being best friends like this was strange. Or at least it should be. At least it wasn't like in Panic!'s situation, where a demon and an angel were best friends. That was just unheard of, but yet there they were, defying what was probably expected of them.

It was always exhilarating to defy the principles that were expected of them as creatures of white magic versus dark magic.

Pete soon found himself drifting off as well, resting easily against Patrick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry about the slow updates rip in pieces I just have a lot on my plate with a bunch of stuff so sometimes posting the update isn't the first thing I have in mind ;;;;  
> But despite the kinda long waits, I still hope you guys are enjoying! It means a lot to receive feedback!  
> xoxo


	5. Chapter 5

Getting on separate flights to go home was never easy - not since Josh had moved to LA - but this time around it was made extra difficult with the addition of Tyler not having Blurry with him on the flight, as well as no Josh to comfort him if he needed it. At least he could go home to Jenna, finally. He called her every day but it was never the same as the real deal, never exactly what he needed.

For a few days, things were fine. He and Josh would text each other constantly, as they always did when they were apart, and Josh would update Tyler on how Blurry was doing. It was two in the afternoon on a Wednesday, though, when Tyler got a text from Josh that wasn’t from Josh.

Josh: Ty!!! Josh’s sick !!!  
  
Tyler rolled his eyes, but smirked slightly at Blurry’s text.  He was lounging on his couch watching _Say Yes to the Dress_ with Jenna, both of them making comments to the screen about how much her _mother should shut up and let her pick the dress she likes._  
  
Tyler: Blurry, if Josh is sick, ur sick too.  
Josh: I am????  Ty how do i make josh bttr??? Wht if he dsnt get bttr??

Tyler: He knows what he’s doing, just let him rest, man. U ok though?

Tyler: U should prolly rest too so ur body can get better. U guys will be fine.  
Josh: So i shld jst go 2 sleep 2??  R u sre thtll wrk???

Tyler had to stifle a giggle. Blurry was just so childlike sometimes, it was adorable.

Tyler: Yeah Blurry just go to bed. U’ll be better soon, k?

Josh:  if u say so Ty. luv u!!!!

Josh: Josh wll txt u soon ok??? 

Josh: 

Tyler: Love you too, man. Talk to you guys later.

Tyler: 

 

A few hours later, Tyler's phone chimed again. Surprisingly, he hadn't quite moved from his spot on the couch, and Jenna was now scrolling through Netflix because it was her turn to pick a movie.

 

Josh: Hey, thx for telling Blurry to go to sleep.

Tyler: np, u feelin awright?

Tyler: drinkin lotsa OJ?

Josh: yeah I think I just have a cold or smth.

Josh: Blurry overreacted. Haven't u been sick b4?

Tyler: well yea but he wasn't around for that

Tyler: like, outside

Tyler: tell him I love his texting style

Tyler: he's so gosh darn cute sometimes

Josh: haha yeah.

Josh felt his face go slightly pink and hoped that Blurry couldn't tell from his vantage point.

Tyler: thx Jishwa

Josh: np

Tyler: now go get more rest

Tyler: u need to be healthy for tour

Josh: yeah yeah i just had to pee, ok?

Josh: and now I’m done and going back 2 bed.

Tyler: good boy

Josh smirked and set his phone down on his nightstand, closing his eyes and attempting to sleep some more.

**::::**

“I have _what_?” Max asked, wide-eyed.

Pete quirked an eyebrow. “Wings..?”

“Are- are you- tell me you’re serious.”

Pete blinked, brow still raised, and pulled his wings into existence, taking care not to rip his shirt. He liked his shirt. This was his favorite Metallica shirt.

Max’s jaw dropped. “Holy shit.” He looked in awe at Pete’s wings, his _golden_ wings, though he didn’t know they were normally black, and they had lost some of their luster in the past few days.

“Can you fly?” he asked, still staring.

Pete shrugged. “I mean, possibly, but I’m not really into that shit. Haven’t tried in almost a decade.”

Max furrowed his brow in shocked confusion, bringing his open-eyed gaze back to Pete’s face. “Why not? Why wouldn’t you want to?”

The elder let a huff escape his nose. “I didn’t exactly embrace the vampire image.” He smirked at the kid. “Still kinda don’t, if that wasn’t obvious.”

Max took a seat on Pete’s couch, crossing one leg over the other. “So, what, you just pretend to be human? Try to be human? I mean, you’re not human, Pete.”

Pete scoffed. “Yeah, no shit. I hadn’t noticed.” He sat in the armchair opposite the boy. “Back when I turned, it was easier to pretend to be human. Not for me, I mean, that shit wasn’t fuckin’ easy. But for everyone else.” His face fell as long-buried memories came trickling back, and Max shifted slightly, anxiously.

“What happened?” Max asked, his voice quiet, careful. He didn’t want to bring up things that weren’t meant to be brought up, but he was curious. He wanted to know. Who wouldn’t?

Pete met his eyes as he looked up, but Max saw that he was lost in his own mind, reliving memories, not actually looking at him. But not looking through him, either. He was looking in front of him as he spoke.

“2001,” he started. “It was 2001, we didn’t- none of us knew about this shit, you know? This supernatural shit. We were kids, Patrick and Joe especially. We barely had a band. I was.. I was heading home after a rehearsal, maybe. I’m not sure.” He took a shaking breath, the memories hazily clouding his vision, feeling distant, but at the same time feeling all too recent, all too real. “I don’t remember much about the incident. I know I was compelled, charmed, and all but sucked dry. I.. I thought I was going to die. For a long time, I wished I had. Because I woke up the next day on Patrick’s basement’s couch, scared, weak, but thirsty as fuck.”

“But you didn’t bite anyone in the band..?”

Pete’s eyes seemed to clear as he looked at Max again. “I didn’t bite anyone, period.”

Max gave him an incredulous glare. “Wh- How? I- my first week-” he stopped himself. He wasn’t exactly proud of how his first week had gone. In fact, it was the all-too-fresh memories of his first week that made him so incredibly willing to let, no, to ask Pete for help.

“Like I said, it wasn’t fucking easy.” Pete responded darkly. “The guys helped. Joe’d figured it out before anyone, before anyone even came back down to the basement.”

“Wait, really? And- wait, how’d you- who brought you to the basement?” Max questioned. Pete seemed to be pretty open about this. If he didn’t want to answer, Max felt sure he wouldn’t.

“Joe did. He saw me in the alley when he was walking home. Thought about calling an ambulance, he said, but saw the bite, and knew it was a bad idea. So he called Patrick and carried me back there.” Pete looked down. “I was locked in the basement for two days before anyone came down.”

Max didn’t know what to say to that, so he just watched Pete’s expression as it fell, as he remembered, but it soon picked back up.

“It was the.. That was the second thirstiest I’ve ever been in my life. So, as soon as the door unlocked and opened, I- of course I smelled it. Their blood. If it were anyone but Patrick at the top of those stairs, god, I might actually have a body count to my name.” Pete’s eyes stung with tears, remembering how the frenzy of the first week felt, how thirsty he had been, how very close to losing his mind to his instincts he was then. He clenched his hands into fists, continuing. “Joe had done some research or some shit. Made this weird concoction. Fucking- Patrick _volunteered_ to bring it to me. Fuck, they didn’t even know if I was still me. All they knew was that I wasn’t alive, but I wasn’t dead, either. But this fuckin’ drink worked. Tasted like shit for a while, until I got used to it. Joe made me some for you, actually, it’s in the fridge. We’ll try it later.”

“Like a potion or..?” Max asked after a few silent moments. Pete managed a smirk.

“Kind of? I always call it my I Can’t Believe It’s Not Blood smoothie. Or, I did, until it stopped being useful. My system got too used to it. That’s when we started raiding blood banks. I don’t know if it’ll work for you, though. You’ve been drinking live blood for so long already. And it doesn’t like, it’s not the best blood substitute to begin with. It fills you up, gives you what your body needs or some shit, I don’t know, Joe does. But it doesn’t feel the same inside you. It doesn’t give you your warmth back. But then, bagged blood barely does that, too.” Pete shrugged. “We’re a couple of cold motherfuckers.”

Max cracked a smile. “Yeah, guess so. Can still break a sweat though, thank god. Imagine if you never sweated during a performance. People would notice.”

Finally the mood had lightened, Pete’s memories had run their course, and he felt considerably less stuck in the past. He gave a light laugh, bringing both his feet up and sitting cross-legged in his armchair. “I’m not exactly subtle about it as it is.”

“Oh yeah? I thought you wanted to keep it hidden?”

Pete just shrugged. “I mean, yeah, sure, but I tell anyone who ought to know. I get to be my kind of normal around more and more people, lately.”

“Like your band?”

“Like the mothers of both of my children.” Pete said matter-of-factly. Ashlee and Meagan both knew exactly what he was well before they got too serious.

“Wait, you-” Max paused. “Wait. Both? I thought?”

“Meagan’s pregnant.” Pete smiled.

“Oh. Oh!” Max returned his smile. “Oh, shit, congratulations, wow, that’s-”

“Yeah.” Pete gave a light laugh.

“So, like, your kid’s not..?” Max asked hesitantly.

Pete shook his head. “Not much, if I can tell. I mean, he likes daddy’s fangs and likes to pretend, and he’s definitely not undead, he’s like, super alive, but who know’s what’ll happen when he hits puberty, you know? I try not to think about it. Enjoy his youth while he’s still young.”

“Wow..” Max looked almost reverently at Pete. He really seemed to have his life together, right now. Which, based on his earlier remarks about his history, sounds like it’s been a long, difficult road. But Pete _had_ people. The whole time, it seemed. Max, though, this was the first time he felt he had anyone to help him navigate his new life. He was fucking thankful.

“What about you?” Pete switched topics. “What’s your story?”

Max hesitated, mouth hanging open slightly as he decided how best to answer.

“I’m guessing Puppeteer has a lot of truth to it?” Pete started for him.

“Uh, y-yeah. Seduced, one night stand, woke up to her biting into my neck, and eventually I.. I passed out. Then I.. Woke up. And she was gone and shit. You know.” Max stared pointedly at the coffee table between them, covered in various rock magazines, along with a couple gossip ones.

“Yeah, I know about the thirst. But I’ve only heard about the frenzy.” Pete said a bit too directly.

“The- uh, frenzy?” Max asked, swallowing hard.

“Come on, Max. The percentage of vamps without a body count are probably so small you can’t count it properly.” Pete stared him down, even though Max wasn’t looking. But the hair on the back of Max’s neck pricked up under the older vampire’s gaze. “In fact, it’s probably just me.” Pete shifted, letting one leg dangle. “So come on, no judgement. Being a vampire fucking sucks,” he paused. “No pun intended. You’ve obviously killed, so just tell me how often.”

Max finally met Pete’s gaze. “You’re so fucking calm about this.” He said it harsher than he meant it, but his eyes gave away his intentions. Pete could see the kid’s spirit was all but broken. He’s had it very, very difficult.

Pete softened his gaze and gave a light exhale, purely as a social gesture. “Let’s just say I’ve seen some shit.” _Xibalba and Mephisto_ , he thinks to himself, closing his eyes and feeling the venom bubbling, hot and angry, just above his fangs. He sighs again, willing his nerves to calm. He didn’t need those memories resurfacing now. Or any time soon. Or ever again.

“I.. I’ve lost count.” Max finally admits, his voice very small and very quiet. “Probably.. Probably around thirty.”

“And in your first week alone?” Pete questioned gently.

Max sighed, looking back down, defeated. “Sixteen.”

There was silence for a heavy minute, before Pete repeated, “sixteen.” He breathed. “Okay, that’s. I’ve heard of worse. It’s okay.”

“Okay?” Max’s voice cracked. “You think it’s okay? I’ve _killed over thirty fucking people_ , Pete!”

Pete stood and went to sit by Max, bringing an arm around his shoulder, and his wing decided to follow suit. “Let me rephrase. It’s not okay, and it’ll probably hurt for a long time, but that can change. We’re changing that right now. Okay? No more deaths, not if we can help it. You’re my charge, kid. We’re gonna get you big-stage ready. Publicity ready. Interview ready. Things are gonna work out great. Now come on,” Pete said, pulling Max up and off the couch. “Let’s see if that not-blood smoothie works for you.”

Max was reluctant to follow, upset about resurfacing the memories of how many people had to die to get him where he is now. But Pete was going to help, right? He was going to help and prevent him from killing anyone else. Just because it was all he’d known thus far didn’t mean he had gotten used to it. As soon as the high of the hunt and fresh blood wore off, he would shut himself up in his room for a while, writing through his remorse until he got thirsty again. He’d put it off as much as he could, and he could last almost a week at a time by now, but he would put it off for so long his vision would black out and he would be reduced to a bloodthirsty creature of the night. It wouldn’t be until the next morning that he would remember, in all too vivid detail, the feeding of the night before. He had to suck it up and try to get better at this stuff like Pete was. The way he saw it, he had no other option.  
  
"Here we go." Pete's words shook Max from his thoughts as a glass was held out to him, containing what looked to be blood, but it in no way smelled like the stuff.   
Max took it cautiously. "It doesn't smell that great."  
  
"Hey, if it helps it helps." Pete said with a shrug.  
  
Max looked at the glass with a bit of a frown, not that enthusiastic or hopeful about this. Pete said it might not work. With a sigh he took a sip of it, trying his best not to spit it out at the taste of it. Pete wasn't kidding when he said it was not blood. It tasted absolutely rancid to him.  
  
"Do you feel sated at all or?" Pete questioned, figuring the answer would be negative based on the face Max was making.   
"Not in the slightest." Max admitted, setting the glass down and pushing it away from himself.  
  
The older vampire sighed. "Figured as much."

Max frowned at that answer, shuffling a bit awkwardly. If it didn't work for him then what would he do?

 _Am I going to have to keep killing...?_  
  
"I suppose you should learn how to raid blood banks without getting caught then."  
  
Pete's words snapped Max back to reality. That's right. He might not have to kill still if he could do this properly. "Thanks again, Pete." Max was overly grateful that the older vampire was here to help him. He was glad to have someone help him out, especially someone who seemed to know exactly what he was going through. He couldn't imagine how difficult that must've been for Pete to handle on his own. Well, not on his own, but without someone mentoring him like he was doing now.  
  
Pete waved off his thanks, dismissing it as something he was more than happy to help with.  
  
He wasn't able to help Mikey before.

But this time.

This time will be different.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aint blurry the cutest piece of shit wow  
> sorry for the slow updates  
> luv u guys  
> also working on posting two other fics related to this series, go check em out on the profile if you haven't already because they may be important!  
> xoxo


	6. Chapter 6

Being apart from Tyler was hard. But being apart from Tyler while sick was even worse. Blurry did what he could to help Josh, but the drummer insisted that all he could do to help would be to let him get some sleep to recover. So he was doing that.

But he himself was still wide awake in Josh's mind space.

He sat on the bed opposite of Josh, rather bored as he looked around the small room. The cat was cuddled up beside the sleeping Josh, so he couldn't distract himself with that. And he wouldn't want to wake Josh, especially when he'd specifically asked to let him get some rest. If it was any plus at all, at least in the mind space like this he didn't really feel sick at all. But Josh was still sleeping anyway.

Blurry really missed Tyler. It wasn't like he wasn't enjoying Josh's company or anything, he actually was getting used to the change in scenery, but he missed the familiarity of Tyler. And looking like Josh was really throwing him off whenever he saw himself.

He sighed as he stood up from the bed, trying to find something to busy himself with until Josh decided to wake up. His first thought was the drum set in the corner of the room, but decided against it since it would definitely wake Josh up. His eyes soon fixated on the mysterious door on the other side of the room. He and Josh didn't talk about it, but he knew that Josh was just as curious as he was. Why would something be locked away like that? What was behind that door? Blurry found himself approaching it curiously, examining it. It looked just like a plain closet door, aside from the numerous amount of locks on it. Whatever was in there probably was not meant to ever get out. Blurry rested his hand on the doorknob cautiously, but it just felt like a normal doorknob. It didn't make any sense to the tulpa.

What could be behind here?

He turned his hand, and to his surprise the knob turned with it, although he thought for certain the knob itself would have been locked, seeing as it had a slot for a key in it. Blurry gave the door another look, growing more confused, and rather scared, of it. He looked at the locks lined up against the door, and that's when he noticed something seemed off about them. They were clearly there, but it seemed also that they... weren't. He lifted his free hand and hesitantly put it against the door, finding that his hand passed right through the chains and locks that seemed to hold the door shut. Were they not real? Magical? What would something like this be doing in Josh's head?

He moved his hand away and gave a look back to Josh, seeing that he was still fast asleep. As he looked back at the door, he turned the knob again and gave it a sharp yank, finding that it opened with ease.

Blurry opened his eyes, not realizing he had closed them at the action, and was rather disappointed with what he found behind the door. It appeared to just be an empty, dark closet. Very dark, he couldn’t even see the walls. _That's it...? All that mystery for this?_ Blurry frowned, shaking his head as he went to close the door once again. He stopped himself though as he heard something from within the closet.  He opened the door back up cautiously, hesitantly poking his head in, hoping that it was just another cat and not something scary. As his head passed through the doorway, his mind was filled with sound. He blinked, hard, opening the door to try and let some light in, but the light seemed to stop at the door frame, refusing to enter. He listened, straining to distinguish between sounds and notes. It was a distant cacophony, indescribable, and his breath caught as he thought maybe he shouldn’t be in here. It had appeared locked for reason, what if this was everything bad about Josh? What if he hurt Josh by opening it? Or changed him forever? Or got him angry? Oh, God, what if Josh would get _angry_ at him?

He tore himself from the black closet and shut the door, a little too loud, and slid down the wall to the side of the closet until he hit the ground, doing his very best not to hyperventilate. He shut his eyes tight and cradled his head in his hands as he heard Josh stir. That was good, right? Josh waking up was good, he could help calm him down, unless Blurry had hurt him by opening the door and he was mad or in pain or-

“Hey, you okay?” Josh’s voice was quiet, gentle even, and right in front of Blurry, who could only manage to shake his head. No, he was not okay. Josh sat next to Blurry and lightly rested a hand against his back, rubbing in slow circles. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he repeated. “You don’t have to tell me anything. Just take your time. Relax.”

Blurry brought his hands around his knees and buried his head into his thighs, doing his best to take deep breaths. He slowly let himself lean into Josh, who draped an arm around him and pulled him close. “I’m sorry..” he squeaked out against his legs, barely loud enough for Josh to hear.

“You’re okay, right? You’re safe?” Josh asked, his tone hushed and concerned. Blurry nodded. “Do you want to talk about what happened?” Josh asked hesitantly.

Blurry took a deep breath. _Josh is gonna be so mad.._ the voice in the back of his head told him. “I.. I’m sorry... I opened the closet...” He tried very hard to make himself small, make himself shrink, disappear, hide. “I’m sorry, Joshie...”

To Blurry’s surprise, Josh just pulled him closer. “Hey, Blurry, no, it’s okay..” The drummer pulled Blurry up and onto his lap, wrapping his arms around the other. “I didn’t know it could open. You didn’t do anything wrong.” The tulpa sniffled softly, allowing himself to bury into Josh’s chest.

“I don’t know what’s in there...” Blurry mumbled into the fabric of Josh’s shirt. “Weird noises...”

Josh ran his hand up and down Blurry’s back, soothing him and keeping him close for a few minutes until he felt Blurry begin to breathe normally. “Hey,” he half whispered. “Is it okay if I go check out the closet?”

Blurry pulled back to look at him, nodding just slightly and scooting off the drummer’s lap before standing and moving to sit on the bed. Josh stood and moved to the closet. It still appeared to be locked, but he found, much as Blurry had, that the handle turned easily and the door opened, greeting him with the strange, thick darkness.

“Can’t see anything in here..” Josh spoke softly.

“It’s like... it’s like, yeah..” Blurry agreed, unsure how to describe it. “You gotta- you gotta stick your head in... b-but be careful, Josh..” The tulpa pulled his knees up to his chest, watching anxiously.

Josh stared into the closet for a minute. He could see the floor, just barely, but the rest of the closet’s contents were a mystery, including the walls. It might not even be a closet, it could be a complete room, but the darkness made it seem completely closed off. It couldn’t be dangerous, he reminded himself, he was in his head. There couldn’t be something in there that could physically harm him. He poked his head inside, and he quickly understood what Blurry meant by “weird noises.” His brow creased as sound entered his mind, but not through his ears. For a moment it was disjointed, unusual, but very quickly the sounds evolved. Something in his thoughts slid into place, and slowly he began to understand. He turned to look at Blurry, curled up on the bed.

“This is..” He breathed. “I know this. I.. I understand this.” It wasn’t music, not exactly. At the very least, it wasn’t like anything he had heard before. It was melodic, rhythmic, pulsing in his head, forming words and sentences that Josh didn’t have to try to understand. And yet he wasn’t sure if he could translate any of it into english. He heard emotions, feelings, the acoustics creating conversation in his very core. It was language, somehow, language he knew, but it wasn’t spoken. It was never intended to be spoken.

Blurry looked at him confusedly. It was a cacophonic mess, how did Josh understand it? It was far away and frightening, confusing. “Wh-what is it..?” He asked tentatively. If he was being honest, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

Josh shook his head, listening intently. He closed his eyes, and after a minute, “my language.” He looked to Blurry, half afraid, half curious.

“Y-your language..?” Josh nodded. “Josh, please, close the door.. please, I’m.. I’m scared..” Blurry’s voice got quieter, and Josh’s eyes widened slightly, stepping back and closing the closet door, ceasing the sounds entering his thoughts. Josh stepped over next to Blurry’s bed.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t.. I didn’t mean to frighten you, man. I’m okay, promise. You’re okay. We’re both alright.”

Blurry shook his head. “It’s okay..” He looked up at the man standing next to him. “What did you mean by ‘your language?’”

It was Josh’s turn to shake his head, only his was in confusion. “I’m not sure, exactly. It’s like.. It feels like it’s my first language, but that I haven’t used it in a long time. It’s like, the sounds are acoustic sentences, or something. I don’t know. I understand it. But slowly.” Josh was still working through what he had heard, working on figuring it out in english. That was the hardest part, honestly. He sighed and wondered what time it was. He had an alarm set for two pm, the latest he would allow himself to sleep in.

Blurry nodded slowly, then allowing himself to lean up against Josh slightly, who moved to sit down next to the tulpa on the bed so he could rest his head on the drummer’s shoulder. “Why is everything so weird...?” He wondered quietly to himself.

“You say that like weird’s a bad thing,” Josh frowned. “Weird’s not a bad thing.”

“I miss Tyler,” Blurry looked sadly at his hands, his hands that were not his, his hands that were too big and too strong to belong to him. “I like being here, but it’s not home..”

Josh looked to where Blurry’s gaze led, then taking one of the tulpa’s hands in his own to distract him and to get his attention. “I know. I miss Tyler, too. It won’t be too long, now,” he reassured. It was strange, looking at Blurry. The tulpa was his copy and his inverse, and yet he still looked so remarkably like _Blurry_ in his actions that it didn’t often register to Josh that he actually looked exactly physically like _him_.

Blurry did his best to smile at Josh, not managing much but still, it was something, and it was genuine. “Thanks, Joshie..”

Josh smirked at the new nickname, but decided he wouldn’t ask about it. Blurry deserved to have something to call him, and he didn’t want to scare the poor guy away from using whatever nickname he liked. Besides, ‘Joshie’ sounded adorable coming from the timid tulpa.

“It’s nothing,” Josh smiled as he got off of Blurry’s bed. “You should go to sleep while you still can. I might still be sick and I would like to not be.”

Blurry nodded and pulled the covers over him, if only for formalities sake. He felt their weight, but they were neither warm nor soft, nor any other descriptor for that matter. Josh followed suit in his own bed, and they both managed to fall asleep relatively quickly, letting Josh’s mind slip back into full REM sleep until he woke up.

**::::**

When Josh opened his eyes and looked to the clock, he saw it was about ten minutes before his alarm was to go off. With a sigh he unlocked his phone and turned off the alarm before it could start. He sat up slowly, his mind feeling like a huge mess. And on top of it all he still felt more than a little sick. Josh brought his hand to his head, trying to settle down the headache that was quickly starting up.

_Still under the weather, Joshie?_

The drummer nodded at Blurry's question, taking a few deep breaths. He closed his eyes as he leaned against the headboard of the bed, trying maybe a bit too hard to try and sort out the headache. His mind kept coming back to that door, and what was inside of it. None of it should have made sense. And for the reason it had actually made sense made less sense to him. Josh tried thinking back to where he might have heard those sounds before. It sounded like nothing he'd heard of before, yet he understood it entirely.

_Josh? Do you need to sleep more?_

"It's okay, just gimme a bit." Josh spoke aloud. "Don't worry." He tacked on after a moment, not wanting Blurry to end up panicking, especially without him there beside him.

Blurry nodded at his request. Josh felt that and let his mind wander back to trying to process what the heck had happened. The longer he focused on it, strange memories, images, flooded into his mind. The memories weren't his. At least, they likely weren't. Maybe they were. It still was hard to understand. But his mind kept flashing back to an image of what he could only describe as a foreign land. Some place he'd definitely never been before, but his mind seemed to say otherwise. As he looked at the scenery before him, his eyes snapped back open at seeing something that definitely didn't seem right. He wasn't sure how to describe it other than it was a six-legged animal that somehow had both scales and fur. That wasn't normal. That wasn't something from Earth.

_Josh?_

Josh shook his head, trying to connect why all of this stuff seemed so familiar to him. Only one thing kept coming back to his mind after that. It sounded dumb. Farfetched. But it was the only thing that seemed to make sense from this.

"Blurry, I don't think I'm human."

_What? What's that mean?_

Josh heard the worry in Blurry's voice as he took out his phone to text Tyler.  


Josh: hey i think i have somethin to tell u when we meet up l8r

Josh: rather say it in person if thts cool  


_Josh what's going on? Not human? In what way? Josh?_

Josh sighed as he set his phone down. "Not human as in I don't think I'm even from this planet."

_As in, like, an alien? You... You look human in every way._

"Yeah, but," Josh sighed again. "I don't know. It makes sense. Kind of. At least to me."

 _Sounds strange enough to be true._ Blurry smiled a bit. _I look human and I'm not, so.._

Josh smiled too, admittedly glad that Blurry seemed to be handling this okay. He could be wrong about this. It could just be his mind playing games on him or something, but it felt right to come to that conclusion. He'd always had a fascination with aliens and space and the like, so maybe this had something to do with it.

_You're still my Joshie, human or otherwise._

Josh laughed a bit at that, which made Blurry hug his knees to his chest and bury his now red face against his knees in embarrassment.

_W-well, not-not **my** Joshie or-ah-_

"It's alright, Blurry." Josh smiled and got up to go and make himself some soup to help with his cold, his cheeks admittedly burning a bit red as well at Blurry's comment.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> do u ever want to scream because blurry is so freakin' adorable  
> because welcome 2 every day in my freakin' life
> 
> xoxo


	7. Chapter 7

A week and a half later, Josh was sitting anxiously, tapping his hands on his knees in a simple rhythm and feeling much better, waiting for Tyler to get to their audition space. Tyler had texted him a while ago when he’d gotten off the plane, and again when he got the rental car and was on his way there. Tyler had insisted on not meeting Josh at the airport, because “airport reunions are so lame, Jish.”

3/4s of Fall Out Boy were at Pete’s place waiting for Andy before coming here, and Dallon was meeting up with Brendon and Kenny at Brendon’s for some barbecue or something before heading over as well. Josh almost felt lonely, since he had just him and Tyler for a “band” get together, but he wasn’t lonely. He still had Blurry, after all. Blurry had gotten really good at picking up on Josh’s emotions and reacting accordingly. Josh still hadn’t quite come to terms with the fact that he was never quite alone and that would sometimes throw him into an introverted funk. Thankfully, Blurry was used to Tyler needing space, and assured Josh that it was perfectly alright if he needed to pretend he wasn’t there for a while. Eventually, Josh would get over that hump, and as soon as his head hit the pillow and he was back in his mind, he would hug Blurry into oblivion in appreciation and thanks.

But now, all Josh could think about was what to say to Tyler. Maybe he could _just_ say it. “ _Hey, Tyler, I could be wrong, but I might be an alien._ ” Maybe. But this was serious, and Tyler might take that as a joke. Maybe he could ask Blurry to explain it? Or he could start with the closet door, perhaps, or-

“Hey,” Tyler peeked through the door to the rehearsal room where everyone was going to meet up, a big grin barely contained on his face. Suddenly, Josh found himself on his bed in his mindspace. He grinned, understanding and realizing that Blurry needed this reunion much more than he did.

"Ty!" Blurry smiled as he jumped up to go and give him a hug, which was returned tightly with a matching expression.

"Hey, Blurry." Tyler held onto his other half tightly for a few moments before releasing him. "You're okay? Feelin' better?" Tyler adds with a laugh, "Josh didn't hurt you at all did he?"

Blurry laughed a bit and shook his head. "Of course he didn't, Ty. I don't even think Joshie is capable of hurting anyone."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure _Joshie_ would never do a thing like that." Tyler smirked a bit, poking fun at the nickname that Blurry had seemed to have given the drummer. It was cute. It was a very Blurry-thing to do.

The tulpa's cheeks grew a bit red as he tried to change the subject. "Uh-the other guys probably won't be here for a little while longer so.." Blurry shrugged going to take a seat in one of the fold-up chairs that Josh had set up earlier.

Tyler took the chair beside him, glad to spend some time with Blurry again. But, what Josh had texted him the other day was worrying him a bit. He had told Tyler not to worry about it, but that just made him worry more. What if it was something serious? "Has everything been okay though? Aside from the cold?"

Blurry hesitated a moment, but remembering that Josh had already messaged Tyler that he needed to talk, he sighed a bit in relief. "Do you want to talk to Josh?"

Tyler frowned, having really missed Blurry, but if it was something important that Tyler needed to know, it would probably be best. "If that's okay?"

Blurry nodded, and a moment later his appearance changed back into the one that Tyler was used to seeing on his best friend.

Josh frowned slightly when he saw Tyler’s expression for himself. “Hey, man, I’m fine. Don’t worry, okay? Just hug me hello before we get down to business.” He smirked at his best friend, happy to see him again, even though it had just been two short weeks. Tyler nodded and the two stood to hug each other tightly. Josh hugged way differently than Blurry, Tyler noticed. Josh’s was strong, where Blurry’s was needy. They let go after a minute and decided in the same moment to do their secret handshake before sitting back down, smiling at each other.

“So, business,” Tyler reminded.

“Right, uh, business.” Josh repeated, admittedly slightly distracted. He could practically feel it now, the steady stream of knowledge as his brain understood and sorted through everything he’d heard in the closet. He’d even opened it again a few times when Blurry was asleep. It was slow, painfully slow, but he grew more and more sure of his original conclusion as time went on.

“Business,” Josh said again, with more conviction. He took a deep breath. “So, you know how Blurry’s eyes look totally, like different than normal?” he asked, referring to Blurry’s complete blackout instead of the red irises he had in Tyler’s body.

Tyler nodded.

“That’s not, uh, that’s not just because Blurry’s in my body,” he shifted uncomfortably in his seat while Tyler looked inquisitively at him. “That’s because Blurry’s in _my_ body. Like, me specifically. Just me. I’m, uh,” He faltered, unsure how to continue.

Tyler scrunched his brows together. “So like, you think in anyone else Blurry’s eyes would still be red? Why?”

Josh looked to his friend. “Ty, I’m pretty sure, and I mean it, like _sure_ sure, like, for absolute _real_ , no joking-”

“Yeah?” Tyler smirked slightly, and Josh shot him a playful look.

“Seriously, man. I’m really serious.”

“Serious about what?”

“I’m uh, I’m not from Earth?” Josh stated as a question. He wasn’t from Earth, he was sure of it. It was some place _like_ Earth, but the images that filled his head simply could not be from this planet. Mammals didn’t have six legs, or blacked out eyes, or scales with fur on this planet. He still didn’t know how he ended up here, why he looked so human, how he had a family, none of that, but this he was sure of.

“Wait, like, an actual alien?” Tyler asked, and Josh could tell Tyler wasn’t sure if he should take him seriously. “What about like, your family?”

Josh just shrugged. “I don’t know yet, I don’t understand, I just know, somehow, that I’m just.. I’m not human.” He looked Tyler in the eye. “I’m not. I’m just, I’m not. I feel like I’m learning slowly, but it’s like, really _really_ slowly, but this much I’ve been able to work out.”

To Josh’s surprise, Tyler just nodded and took a deep breath. “Okay,” he said. “That’s new.”

“You’re not going to like, freak out..?” Josh asked quietly. He wasn’t sure what Tyler would do, he was prepared for anything, even the worst. But Tyler just shook his head.

“Weirder things have happened to us, Josh, come on. I can accept a little extra-terrestrialism when you have my freaking Tulpa stuck in your head. I mean honestly, what’s weirder here?” Tyler smiled. “There being life in the vast cosmic expanse that isn’t human? Or a magic being that was created in _my_ head now residing in _your_ head?”

Josh laughed softly. Tyler had a point.

 _I love Tyler,_ Blurry told Josh softly. _He’s so good._ Josh grinned warmly.

“Blurry tellin’ you something?” Tyler asked, noticing the change in expression on Josh’s face. It was funny, really, how good Tyler was at reading his expressions. Josh nodded.

“He just wanted to tell me he loved you.” Josh grinned, and Tyler grinned back.

“Well I love you too, Blurry. And Josh, that goes for you, too.”

“Aw, love you too, man.” Josh laughed. After a moment, Tyler perked up.

“So, does that mean I can call you E.T.?”

Josh just slapped his shoulder, Blurry laughing in his head behind the scenes.

Blurry enjoyed being in Tyler's presence again. Two weeks apart was really strange, kind of scary, even if Josh was around too. The closet still scared him, despite the fact Josh had said that it was okay. He much preferred sitting on one of the beds with the cat than to focus on the closet.

Tyler was about to ask some questions to Josh about this new alien stuff, but was interrupted when he heard one of the fold-up chairs scrape against the floor and stop right beside them.

"Yo. Hope I'm not interrupting anything." Joe took a seat in the chair he'd pulled out, and Josh gave Tyler a look before shaking his head in Joe's direction.

"No, not at all."

 _Did he overhear us?_ Blurry panicked a bit, but Josh assured him everything was fine. Unless he was standing there quietly listening to them, which he doubted Joe could stand to do, he wouldn't have heard anything that would hint that Josh wasn't human.

Shortly after, Patrick and Andy joined the others sitting, Andy quietly complaining about 'that kid talks so much'. Both Josh and Tyler looked at each other in confusion before they heard the door open up once more, revealing Pete and a younger man who was talking excitedly with Pete about something.

"So this is like legit tour prep stuff?" Max asked Pete with a grin. He'd only been on small tours himself. Nothing massive like this would probably turn out being, what with three big name bands touring together. "This is gonna be fuckin' sweet-"

"Hey guys." Pete talked in Tyler and Josh's direction, admittedly rather exhausted from all of Max's chatting. "How're you holding up?"

"Holding up?" Tyler frowned as he looked at Pete, then glanced over to Patrick who held his hands up defensively at the look.

"They forced it outta me! I can't lie around these assholes." Patrick said quickly, then frowning in Pete's direction who just grinned in response before looking back to Tyler. "Or anyone, for that matter." he added quietly, frowning more at himself now.

"A bit of a supernatural problem?" Pete asked, looking at Josh now. "A tulpa, Patrick said?"

Blurry felt himself shrink back a bit on the bed in Josh's mind space, not liking all of this attention from people he barely knew. And there was something strange about this man. Pete was it? Blurry recognized him from a few times a while back when Tyler and Josh had met them. And in those videos that Patrick had told them to watch. His hair was different now, but definitely still the same guy.

"Blurry isn't the problem." Josh said, "it's the fact he isn't in Tyler's head."

Blurry smiled a bit at Josh's words. He isn't the problem. That's really kind of Joshie to say.

"Oh, no, I wasn't saying he was the problem-" Pete sighed, not wanting to get off on the wrong foot with this.

 _Who's that kid?_ Blurry asked Josh to ask. He was pretty sure he'd never seen him before, and the fact they were talking about this stuff right in front of a total stranger made him way more than a little uneasy.

At Blurry's words, Josh looks to Max, then back to Pete with a questioning eyebrow.

"Oh, shit right. Tyler, Josh, uh, Blurry? This is Max. Recently signed him." Pete introduced. "Brought him along to show him the tour life. And also so I can help him out with some shit he's been dealing with."

Max grinned in their direction and gave them a wave. "Yeah he said he'd help me himself get a grip on this vampire stuff. Which is fuckin' awesome right? Like he's got so much more experience than me-"

"Max."

Max looked back at Pete when he heard his name, seeing that Pete looked to be a mixture of angry and annoyed. "...what?"

"Max, they don't know that."

"Wha-oh-shit. I thought-shit, man-"

"Vampire stuff?" Tyler asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

Pete sighed as he directed his attention back to Tyler and Josh. “Yep. Vampire. Been one for a long-ass time. Would’ve told you on my own terms but…” He looked at Max, who put his hands up in desperation.  
  
“I didn’t know, dude! I’m sorry!”  
  
“I guess the sooner it’s out in the open for everyone, the easier it’ll be for everyone yeah?” Pete said, trying to look on the brighter side of this. At least now he wouldn’t have to sneak around what he was teaching Max and whatnot.  
  
_Vampires don’t exist, do they?_  
  
Josh couldn’t help but laugh audibly at Blurry’s question. _Dude, you exist, I exist, Patrick and Dallon exist, and Brendon exists. Do you really think that vampires can’t be real?_  
_  
_ Blurry felt his cheeks burn a bit in embarrassment. _Well, uh, that’s different or something… the idea of vampires creep me out._

Josh just smiled a bit and decided to drop the subject, not wanting Blurry to get more embarrassed.  
  
“Something funny?” Pete asked with a frown in Josh’s direction. Being a vampire wasn’t really funny, in his eyes.  
  
“O-oh, no.” Josh shook his head quickly. “I was just, uh, talking with Blurry.”  
  
“Speaking of,” Patrick pulled up a chair beside Joe as he addressed Josh, “how’re you doing? The whole situation seems pretty not normal. Even in our loose terms of normal nowadays.”  
  
Josh gave a shrug as response. “I don’t mind it, really. Blurry is nice to have around.” He felt the one in question smile at his words. “But the three of us know that he’d feel much better if he was back in Tyler’s mind.”  
  
“Is it okay if I talk to him?” Patrick asked. He’d never met a tulpa before, but from what he’d learned, an internal tulpa like this is extremely uncommon in comparison to what they usually are. And if the Blurryface that they’re talking about is the same from what their most recent album was about, then he wanted to try and understand why this tulpa seemed to be so important to the both of them if it was something that was meant to cause them grief and other negative feelings.  
  
Josh sensed Blurry’s hesitation in accepting Patrick’s offer. _Go ahead. Tyler and I will be right here._  
_  
__If you insist, Joshie.._

And with that, Josh gave up control and Blurry took over, although his appearance didn't change due to his discomfort with the situation. Tyler noticed the change in Josh's posture though and instantly knew that it was no longer the drummer. He grabbed Blurry's hand and gave him a smile for reassurance. "It's alright, Blurry. Patrick wants to help."

Blurry avoided eye contact with Patrick, just looking down at his-Josh's-feet as he squeezed Tyler's hand tightly. He absolutely hated being the center of attention like this. He felt so uncomfortable.

"Blurryface?" Patrick questioned, unsure if it was still Josh or not. Tyler's actions seemed to suggest otherwise.

"Just Blurry." Both Blurry and Tyler corrected at the same time, which earned a crack of a smile from the more nervous of the two. That's right. Tyler is here. Tyler wouldn't let anyone hurt him. Blurry took a few moments to relax and calm down, still holding Tyler's hand tightly as his own features finally started to show through.

The change in appearance took everyone by total surprise, definitely unused to seeing Josh look like, well, not Josh.

Patrick raised an eyebrow as he looked at Blurry. This was definitely not Josh. Tulpas held a dark aura, and he could see it coming from Josh now, which meant that it wasn't actually Josh, and that there really was a third person involved. Tulpas can be considered persons right? Even if they're made from imagination? Patrick decided against asking, not wanting to offend Blurry if he took it the wrong way. Blurry is a person too. "Blurry it is, then." The angel finally said with a smile, which put the Tulpa a bit more at ease.

"Thanks." He mumbled quietly, finally looking at Patrick for a moment before glancing away again, still not totally comfortable with this situation. There were so many people here. As much as he enjoyed being the one out in the world like this, it felt different when everyone's eyes were on him, studying him like he was some science project. He squeezed Tyler's hand tightly, trying to calm himself down. Having a panic attack in front of all these people would not be a good first impression.

Patrick noticed how uncomfortable Blurry looked, and not wanting to trigger a bad response, he decided to lay off any difficult questions. The Blurry that he's seeing now seems to be very different than the one that 'wants Tyler dead'.

As Patrick went to go speak, he was suddenly interrupted by the door swinging open.

"Oh god, what is that smell?" Max complained, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

"Brendon." Pete said just as the one in question came waltzing into the room with Dallon following behind.

"'Sup fuckers? Hope you didn't start anything without us!" Brendon laughed loudly, which caused Dallon to roll his eyes.

"Why does he reek?" Max asked Pete quietly, seeing a dark aura surrounding Brendon.

"Demons always reek of sulfur. You'll get used to it." The elder vampire explained, which in turn caused Max to look back at Brendon quickly.

"Demon? Brendon Urie a demon?" Max asked a bit too loudly.

"Brendon!" Patrick turned in his seat, glaring directly at the demon pointedly.

"Yo Patrick-" Brendon started but then stopped himself, realizing that he had never told Patrick what he was. "O-oh shit, uh-" He quickly ducked behind Dallon. "Go make your fucking feathers appear man, before he sees me!"

"Brendon, I think it's a bit late for that." Dallon frowned, stepping away from Brendon as Patrick got up and made a bee-line straight for him. The demon had plenty of chances to tell Patrick what he was. Whatever the other angel had planned, Brendon deserved it.

"Shit, Patrick, I-I can explain-" Brendon stuttered, really not wanting to be ripped apart by the demon hating angel that was approaching him.

"Why'd you keep this a secret for so long?" Patrick interrogated, not liking the fact one of his friends had hidden something like this from him. "What happened? When did it happen?"

Brendon relaxed a bit at realizing he wasn't yet destined to die today, taking a deep breath before briefly and nonchalantly explaining the events that had led to him becoming what he was.

As they busied themselves with talking, Dallon made his way over to Tyler and Josh--Tyler and Blurry, rather. Seeing Brendon immediately set Blurry off the edge of a panic attack, Tyler tending to him and trying to help him come back down. Luckily all of the attention seemed to be on Brendon now, so Tyler was thankful for that.

"Tyler, Tyler don't-don't let him hurt me again.." Blurry cried quietly, trying his best to take deep breaths and calm down, but was having much too difficult of a time breathing to calm down properly.

"He won't lay a hand on you, Blurry." Tyler reassured him, rubbing his back gently.

"Sorry about all the commotion." Dallon said to them, kneeling down in front of Blurry. "You know how Brendon likes to make an entrance." He gently put his hand to Blurry's forehead. Dallon's hand glowed a bright white for a moment, and Blurry was able to feel himself breathe normally once again. He was still on edge, but found it easier to calm down now.

"Th-thank you, Dally." Blurry managed to say after a minute, smiling at the angel that he trusted.

Dallon returned the smile, rather liking that Blurry felt comfortable enough around him to give him a nickname. "Anything to help." He stood back up, looking to Tyler. "A bit strange not having Blurry with you, huh?"

Tyler nodded, still rubbing the tulpa's back gently to keep him calm. "Hopefully we can fix this soon."

 _Are you doing alright? Do you want to stay out?_ Blurry heard Josh ask, worry dripping through his tone.

_I'll be alright. Thank you, Joshie. Unless you want to come out-_

_Stay. Patrick still wants to talk to you, anyway._

Blurry nodded, taking another deep breath to keep calm, eyeing Brendon warily. Every time he looked at him, all that flashed through his mind was being lifted in the air by him and being unable to breathe. If Tyler wasn't there to knock sense into the demon, he probably wouldn't be here now. At the time, not being here wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but knowing now that he actually means something to Tyler, and Josh, made him start valuing his own life for a change. He knew he was still a problem, a burden, emotionally towards the two, but they cared about him nonetheless and Blurry felt totally indebted to the both of them for putting up with what he was. While he did feel much happier and less anxious with their acceptance of his presence, it obviously isn't a total cure, seeing from just this past panic attack. There isn't such thing as an instant cure for depression and anxiety and everything that he was made to represent. While he had his occasional highs, the lows were way more common.

Max observed everything that was going on, trying to make sense of it all. Patrick was pissed at Brendon for something, who was a _demon_ of all things. Dallon held the same aura as Patrick--did that make the tall guy an angel too? And what was going on with Josh's change in appearance?

"Overwhelming?"

Max nodded at Pete's question. "Uh, interesting company you keep." Within the time he had met Pete until now, he'd seen more supernatural things than he had in his entire life. Max had a feeling this would only get stranger from here on. He thought he was alone in all this, then Pete reached out to him, and now there's so many different things that aren't human in here.

"Never really realized how not-normal this all is." Pete admitted with a laugh. His sense of normal had definitely become skewed since the whole turning into a vampire thing happened. Tyler saying that Blurryface was real? Yeah, that fit in perfectly fine with his sense of normal. To other people? Eh, maybe not so much.

"Pretty not-normal." Max confirmed, looking back to Pete with a bit of a smile. As strange as things were in here, he didn't exactly feel out of place for once. To everyone here, the fact that he was a vampire wouldn't make them freak out and run off or anything like that.

Maybe he should get used to this being his new sense of normal, too.

"You getting thirsty at all?" Pete asked, receiving a shrug as a response.

"I could go for some, yeah." Max answered. He wasn't overly thirsty, nowhere near breaking out into a frenzy sort of thirsty, but if he was going to be spending time around others like this, he figured it wouldn't hurt to go and fill up.

"Think you can handle checking out a bank on your own?" The elder vampire asked, raising an eyebrow. He wanted to see how he could help with Patrick and that whole situation, and some time away from Max would give his mind a bit of a rest.

"My own?" Max hesitated unsurely before giving a quick nod. "I think I can do that." He just has to remember everything that Pete had showed him. It couldn't be that difficult right? It wasn't that hard when he was watching him. He could do it. He could handle it. Yeah.

"Great." Pete gave a grin and told him to tap in the nearest blood bank in his phone's gps. "And if you run into any trouble whatsoever, make sure you call me immediately, alright?"

"I'll be fine baby, no worries." Max winked and grinned at him before doing as he was told, then giving a quick wave goodbye as he headed out the building to let them deal with whatever shit they had going on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you're all still having a gr8 time reading!  
> comments and such are appreciated! tell us what you enjoy and what you think is gonna happen and stuff!  
> xoxo


	8. Chapter 8

After Patrick had gotten Brendon's side of the story, he managed to relax and return to the topic at hand, making his way back to Tyler and Blurry. "Sorry for that." He noticed Blurry seemed to be much more on edge than he had last seen, causing him to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

At being looked at intently again, Blurry shrunk back into his seat a bit, feeling just generally uncomfortable and exhausted with everything going on.

Luckily, Dallon came to the rescue. "He and Brendon have a bit of a history. But he's doing alright now." The taller angel gave an encouraging smile to the timid tulpa, which unfortunately went unnoticed by Blurry's lack of attention.

"Oh, right, Tyler mentioned something about that." Patrick remembered back to their phone call, and he was going to ask more questions about it, but at seeing how Blurry looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but here, he decided to drop the topic. There will be a time and a place to learn more about their history, but now is definitely not the time. "I think I know what caused this switch to happen."

At hearing that, Blurry finally looked away from Tyler and gave Patrick his full attention. "D-do you?" If he knew what caused it, then he would know how to fix it right?

"It's definitely those latent possession powers coming into play here." Patrick confirmed with a nod. "Specifically transference, I would say."

"What does that mean?" Tyler questioned. The only power he was able to understand and get under control was the hellfire, and even then it wasn't something as extreme as this seemed to be.

"It's what demons use for possession. But this is a more watered down version of it, I would say. Josh could come into control whenever he wants, right?" Blurry nodded. "So it isn't a full-scale possession or anything like what demons do. He just accidentally, uh." Patrick tried to figure out how to put it. "Accidentally hopped hosts, I think. Or rather Tyler caused it. The post possession powers affect Tyler, not Blurry, since Brendon possessed Tyler." Patrick tilted his head in thought. "Which is why you should get a handle on those powers. Blurry can't hop back where he belongs without you, uh, pulling him back in."

Tyler took a moment to try and process everything Patrick said. It's in no way Blurry's fault this happened, which means he doesn't need to worry about his tulpa jumping to another host randomly. So that's a bit of a relief. "And... And you know how to control it?" Tyler finally asked.

"I would think so. Since I can use the same type of dark magic that is still in you, I should be able to do what you can." Patrick said. "Even if I haven't used transference magic myself, the fact that I've had this magic for the past few years means I have better control and understanding about it." The angel nodded again. "I'll help you tame that dark magic that you have at your disposal."

Tyler sighed quietly in relief, glad that there seems to be hope for their situation. "Thank you. Really. I would love to learn if you're willing to teach." He smiled at Patrick before looking back to Blurry. "We'll get things fixed soon."

Blurry gave him a hopeful smile, really hoping that he was right. He wasn't too sure how much he trusted this other angel, but if Tyler wanted his help, he would have to trust Tyler's instincts.

Tyler would never let any harm come his way.

**::::**

Patrick decided that they should deal with everything after they're all settled down and such, and so Blurry could get more comfortable around the others. If he was to be helping Tyler and the tulpa, having Blurry space out or be nervous would make it more difficult for them.

Tyler figured that telling them how they learned of Blurry's existence would be a good icebreaker for him. The tulpa wanted to retreat back into Josh's mind and let him be in control again, but Tyler insisted he should stay out, so he didn't want to argue with him. And he did have to admit, although the story was mostly about him, he found a bit of comfort in hearing Tyler explain what happened those couple weeks ago. He chimed in every so often, but was glad to let Tyler take the reigns on the talking. Dallon and Brendon added in some commentary too, but Blurry still shut the demon out and didn’t even once look at him. Brendon might have tried helping him by taking on his injuries, but it was he who caused them so he wasn’t all too forgiving, especially when Brendon insisted that Blurry should be thankful for him doing that. He shivered at the memory before shaking it out of his mind, just focusing on Tyler talking.

After a good amount of time of explaining, Patrick finally spoke too. “Sounds like you guys had an eventful time hm?” The angel smiled at Blurry to try and get him to get out of his shell a bit more. Blurry returned the smile for a moment before looking away again, still finding more comfort with Tyler, Josh, and Dallon than with anyone else. “Alright, let me see what I can do for you.” Patrick tilted his head in thought before seeming to decide on something. “If it’s okay with you, Blurry, Tyler, it will probably just be easier for me to demonstrate how to do it instead of explaining.”  
“Demonstrate?” Tyler frowned, not really following.  
“I can take Blurry from Josh and have him sit with me until you can take him back. It shouldn’t be too difficult for you to manage, I think.”  
Blurry wasn’t too sure of this idea at all. It was strange enough residing in Josh’s mind, but going into Patrick’s? He really didn’t know him well, and he already felt out of place not being with Tyler. His curiosity tugged a bit at him though, wondering how different Patrick’s mind would be like. The mind of an angel. Would it be just like a sky and clouds or something? Or is that too stereotypical?   
“What do you think, Blurry?” Tyler’s words brought the tulpa back to reality as he looked back to him with a shrug.  
“I-I’m not sure.” He admitted. He took a moment before he finally looked at Patrick again. “If Tyler can’t do it, can you put me back in him yourself?”  
Patrick gave it some thought. “I would imagine so. Pulling you out of Josh and pushing you back to Tyler could probably be done. But it can’t be directly between you two. You’d still have to come to me before I could bring you back to Tyler.” He finally said. “And in any case, it would probably be best for Tyler to learn how to control this in case he accidentally does this again.”

Blurry nodded in understanding. So, even worst case scenario, he would still be back where he belongs, even if Tyler can’t get it right on the first try or anything like that. “Al-alright then. I accept.” He nodded again, clenching his fists a bit in worry though. Blurry had a bad feeling in his gut about this, but he couldn’t place why. Patrick was an angel, just like Dallon. He wouldn’t cause him pain or trouble like Brendon would. Even if he wasn’t totally sure of him, Blurry decided to put a bit of faith in him. He was experienced and seemed to know what he was doing and what he was talking about.  
 _Everything will be fine, Blurry. You’ll be back in Tyler shortly._ Blurry felt the smile in Josh’s words, which put him a bit more at ease.  
 _It isn’t like I don’t like being here with you, but-_ _  
_ _Tyler’s where you belong, dude. I get it._ He heard the smile still stay. _And besides, it’s not like we aren’t going to see each other again. And, if Tyler can learn how to control this, you could always come and visit._ _  
_That caused Blurry to smile too. _You wouldn’t mind?_ _  
_ _Of course not, man! You might’ve been created in Tyler’s mind, but you’re so important to both of us. Without you, I wouldn’t have found out about this alien stuff._ _  
_Blurry looked down at his feet, kicking them a bit absentmindedly as a light blush formed on his cheeks at Josh’s words. _Glad to help in any way I can. Love you, Joshie._ _  
_ _Back at ‘cha, Blurry._ __  
Blurry’s smile grew a bit more, but was distracted by feeling a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look back to his true counterpart.  
“Sayin’ bye to Josh?” Tyler asked, a rather amused look on his face.  
The tulpa shook his head. “It isn’t goodbye. Not like we aren’t going to see each other again.” He laughed a bit before looking back at Patrick and nodding. “I’m good when you are.”  
The angel nodded in return and put a hand on Blurry’s shoulder.

Nothing seemed to happen.

Patrick frowned a bit as he kept his hand there for a moment longer, before pulling it back. “Hang on a second.” Patrick stood up from his chair and his wings suddenly became visible to everyone in the room, which totally took the tulpa by surprise. “Shit, that’s what I thought.” Patrick frowned and looked over to Pete, who was looking down at his phone, seeming to be sending a text to someone. “Hey, Pete, you thirsty?”  
The question caused the vampire to look at Patrick with a questioning eyebrow before managing to connect the dots. “I wouldn't turn down a drink.” Pete grinned at him and stood up too, not wanting to pass up the chance where Patrick was the first to ask that instead of him more or less forcing the angel to do it for him.  
“Just, uh, excuse us for a second.” Patrick said before hurrying over to Pete, mumbling something about having too much white magic.  
Andy rolled his eyes at them before shaking his head and elaborating for the two--three--that were confused. “Patrick has both white and black magic, due to the whole Mephisto thing, but he can’t tap into that black magic without Pete’s help.”  
“How does Pete help?” Tyler asked, not really following everything going on.  
“Pete can drain the white magic filled blood from Patrick to allow him access to the black magic tainted blood within him. I still think they’re idiots for being okay with the whole blood thing, but I can’t stop them.” Andy shrugged, having given up on trying to reason with Pete about the dangers of drinking from living beings, whether or not they turn into vampires afterwards.  
Blurry made a face at that, still really not liking the idea of vampires and blood and all that stuff that went along with that. He wouldn’t be able to imagine how much it must hurt to have your blood drained like that from you.

**::::**

Patrick led Pete over to a corner of the room, away from the others and slightly concealed by the racks of folded up chairs. Even though he wasn’t really concerned with secrecy about what was going on, he was more concerned with the questions and confusion that he would likely be bombarded with by Tyler and Blurry. Heck, even Dallon, too. Dallon probably didn’t know what came from a vampire biting an angel, and he didn’t want to freak out the other angel by what happens.   
“Just try and be quick, alright?” Patrick said as he wrapped his wings around Pete, rather in a hurry to get back to the others.  
“Hey, don’t need to rush.” Pete said, which caused a frown of annoyance from the shorter of the two. “You know you’re gonna want to take a rest before you try anything afterwards. Especially if you plan on teaching Tyler shit. You don’t want to be half dead when you’re talking to him.”  
“Like you are?” Patrick raised an eyebrow with a smile, causing the vampire to roll his eyes as he corrected himself.  
“Half _asleep_.”  
“I suppose you’re right.” Patrick sighed and tightened his wings’s grip on him. “Just to it already so we can get the unpleasant part out of the way.”  
“Yeah, yeah.” Pete wasn’t up for arguing with the angel, especially since he was getting some of that high-inducing blood out of this. He brought out his own wings to keep Patrick close, taking a moment to himself to listen to his friend’s blood move beneath his skin.  
“ _Pete._ ”  
“Alright, geez.” Pete laughed a bit before sinking his fangs into the side of his neck.

**::::**

It was roughly ten minutes later before the angel and vampire rejoined the rest, Patrick being supported by Pete’s arm as he led him back to his seat.  
“Is… Is he okay?” Blurry asked, shifting a bit closer towards Tyler in a bit of worry, not quite comfortable seeing the black wings on an angel.  
“He’s totally fine. Just needs to take a quick power nap before he helps you guys out.” Pete assured him, sitting beside Patrick as the angel tiredly rested his head against the vampire’s shoulder.  
“A nap’d be a helluva lot easier if you’d all jus’ shush.” Patrick said, speech slurred a bit by his tiredness.   
“Sorry.” Blurry mumbled, wondering if he should take Pete’s word for Patrick being okay. Patrick seemed to be the one to initiate whatever it was the whole blood stuff involved, so he would probably be okay if he knew what would happen. Blurry relaxed a bit at this thought.  
Speaking of the angel, he was already fast asleep, leaning against Pete as he slept.

“Are _you_ alright?” Tyler asked Pete, wholly curious about the golden wings that now sat on the other’s back.   
“Oh, yeah, it’s normal.” Pete shrugged off his concern before pulling out his phone again with a frown. “I’m more worried about Max..” He mumbled quietly. The younger vampire should have definitely been back by now, and he wasn’t returning his texts. What if something had happened to him? What if he had gotten caught? Or worse, if someone found him? Or found out what he was?  
Pete bit his lip in worry as he sent him a fifth message, hoping for some sort of answer from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what no i totally didnt forget to update this sooner what no youre the shut up  
> uwu;;;;
> 
> xoxo


	9. Chapter 9

Max was feeling rather proud of himself. He'd managed to break his way into the blood bank and nab a total of six pouches before making his way out safely and unnoticed. Once he was away and out of sight of any prying eyes, he shoved the baggies into a light drawstring backpack he'd brought with him as he headed his way back towards the venue to show off to Pete how well he'd done. As he walked, something was telling him that he wasn’t alone. That someone was watching him. Max stopped and looked around. It didn’t seem that there was anyone else around, aside from people just passing by. None of them were particularly threatening or anything like that. With a frown, he decided to keep on walking, although keeping an ear out for anything that was out of place. These vampire powers were still pretty new to him, but he did know enough to tell him something was off.  
“Blood from blood banks?”  
Max immediately turned heel at hearing the voice, coming face to face with someone he thought he recognized from somewhere. He raised an eyebrow in confusion before taking a step away. “Excuse me?”  
“Is that what Peter’s taught you to do?” The other man raised an eyebrow in return before letting out a small laugh. “He isn’t even letting you work on your powers? What a joke.”  
Max took a step away again, hands gripping tightly to the backpack strings unsurely. This person not only seemed to know what he was, but he also knew Pete? “You… know Pete?”  
The other shrugged. “Yeah, he’s the one who turned me.”  
“He…” Max frowned, shaking his head and not following what the other was saying. Turned him? Didn’t Pete say something about having not bit on humans? Or maybe he said he had. He honestly couldn’t remember. “Who-who are you?”

He seemed to be in thought for a moment. “A friend.” He finally answered, smiling a closed-mouth smile at the younger one. “A better mentor. Pete has no fucking idea what he’s doing with you, trust me on this. He doesn’t even know the first thing about being a vampire himself. Why don’t you take some advice from someone who embraces the thing we are?”  
Max shook his head, more than a little uncomfortable with this situation. Why does he look familiar somehow? He can’t place a name for him though. Max went to go fish his phone out of his pocket at hearing it chime with a message. Upon looking at it though, there was definitely more than just one message there. As he unlocked his phone to answer Pete and let him know he got the blood just fine, the other nabbed his phone from him and went to respond instead. “What are you doing? Give that back.”  
“Just letting him know you’re in more than capable hands now.” He laughed again as he pressed send on his message, handing it back to Max afterwards.  
With a frown he went to see what he’d sent to Pete: _dont need to worry urself about vamp training anymore petey :) ur fave sweet lil dude’s got this_

Max looked at the other with a look that could only be interpreted as total confusion.  
“Mikey Way. Nice to meet you.” The other grinned at Max, finally revealing his fangs in the process.

“... _Mikey Way_?” Max was rather speechless aside from that. He's someone that Pete had turned? How many others has Pete turned? He said he never had a body-count, but that doesn't mean he hadn't turned anyone else… Before Max could ask more, his phone suddenly started ringing. He went to answer, but yet again Mikey snatched the phone from him.

“Hey there Peter.” Mikey greeted with another laugh. “I told you I've got this. I'll show him what it really means to be one of us. Or rather. One of me. You can hardly call yourself a real vampire.” Max could almost hear Pete yelling on the other end of the receiver, but Mikey just gave another laugh before clicking end call and flicking the switch on the side of the phone to put it on silent before handing it back to Max. “He says it's totally fine and won't bother us. Now come on, let's get out of the public eye so I can show you how to truly live.”

“Hey-wait-” Max stuttered, but was cut off by Mikey grabbing his wrist and dragging him off.

As much as meeting another vampire should have been more or less terrifying, he could tell Mikey didn't have ill-intent towards him. He seemed to actually want to help him out. And besides, it wasn't like he was _abandoning_ Pete or anything. Getting another perspective on this vampire stuff would be good, right?

**::::**

“What the fuck!” Pete furiously dialed Max’s number into his phone again, ignoring the odd looks everyone in the room was giving him. Unfortunately it rung out until it went to his voicemail. “Shit! Fucking hell!”

“Is Max okay?” Andy asked, rather concerned with Pete’s outbursts. Max might have been a bit annoying, but if something had happened to him they wouldn't hesitate to go and help.

Pete let out a long sigh, trying to calm down, but he was already worked up and angry. “ _Mikey_ found him. Fucking-”

“Pete, I'm trying to rest.” Patrick opened a tired eye, giving his best attempt at a glare despite his tiredness. “Can you have a crisis when I'm done?”

“Sorry. I-I gotta go find him.” Pete looked at Patrick apologetically before standing up, causing the angel to fall over against the chair Pete was sitting in. Patrick let out a tired groan before sitting back up and waving him off.

“Yeah, go ahead, just leave me here, whatever.” Patrick complained as Pete went to go hurry for the door.

“Are… Is everything okay?” Blurry asked, looking at Patrick with a frown and not quite understanding anything that had just occurred.

“Petey’ll handle it.” Patrick answered tiredly with a yawn, not able to give much thought to anything at still being exhausted from the blood being taken from him. “I need to rest some more. Sorry, ‘m in no condition to help ya right now.”

Blurry nodded in understanding, looking to Tyler before cautiously getting up to sit beside Patrick. “Y-you can rest against me. I-if-if you want. If that's more comfortable or-or-” Blurry’s rambling was cut off by feeling Patrick’s head against his shoulder.

“Thanks.” He mumbled before dozing off once again.

Tyler gave Blurry a questioning look for his actions.

“Well-well, if I'm gonna be spending time in his mind, I should try getting used to him now… r-right?” He hoped his logic made sense. Blurry didn't like the idea of occupying an almost total stranger’s mind, so offering help should make him feel a bit more comfortable around this other angel.

Tyler smiled at his answer. “You're so cute, Blurry.”

“I-” Blurry hesitated, the red rushing to his cheeks in embarrassment. He decided against saying more, not wanting to risk waking up Patrick. He looked like he definitely enjoyed his sleep and didn't want it interfered with.

_You really are so cute._

Blurry’s blush just grew more at hearing Josh chime in. _Sh-shush, Joshie._

He felt Josh grin at his response but again decided against doing anything in fear of invoking the wrath of a tired Patrick Stump.

That might be even more terrifying than Brendon.

**::::**

Mikey had led Max to a nearby park, which aside from a few families here and there, was mostly unoccupied. They sat on a bench in the shade of a large tree, and Mikey gave him a look over. “You're still young aren't you?”

“Uh-” Max wasn't sure what he meant at first but it clicked after a moment. “I was turned like two months ago.”

Mikey nodded. “ _Very_ young.”

“And how long have you been one?” Max asked, curious about what had happened between Pete and Mikey that caused this.

“About ten years. It was 2005, Warped Tour.” Mikey answered. “Peter and I had been hanging out and he suddenly just bit me.” He shrugged, deciding to leave out certain details that Max didn't need to know about. It was personal stuff that he himself didn't like to think about anyway. “He offered to help me through it but I really wasn't interested in hiding away like he had been doing.”

Max nodded a bit in understanding. Pete definitely seemed different than what he knew about vampires. He had never killed anyone, and while that was an amazing feat, it seemed almost unreal. “So.” Max tried to think about how to phrase the question in his mind. “You said you could train me? Or help me rather? What can you do that Pete wouldn't?”

“You don't have to live off that donated crap.” Mikey nodded his head towards the backpack. “Going his way is more like taking a vegan approach to things. It's fine and all, I guess, but it's nothing like the real stuff.”

“Real stuff involves killing.” Max frowned, suddenly unsure of his decision to listen to Mikey.

“Is that what Pete told you?” The elder of the two laughed. “God, no. Once you control your magic you won't kill or transfer the vampirism. Drink from living hosts all you want, no repercussions. Isn't that much better than drinking from baggies the rest of your life?”

Max hesitated. The bags he'd drank from since he accepted Pete’s help _did_ satisfy his thirst, but he'd be lying if he said he liked the taste of it. Especially compared to when he would drink from a human. Sinking his fangs into a bag in no way felt the same as sinking his fangs into someone’s neck. “...h-how?” He was definitely interested in what Mikey had to say now.

“Vampires have a source of magic they can use. Learning to use that will help to make sure you don't kill when you drink.” Mikey explained. “Now..” Mikey seemed to take a bit of a sad, understanding look to his eyes. “How bad has the damage been so far? Two months with no proper training. It-uh-it probably isn't pretty, right?”

Max shook his head quickly. “Not in the slightest.” He hated admitting how many people had ended up dying at his hand. “Sixteen in the first week.”

Unlike the reaction Pete had at that news, Mikey just nodded with understanding. “Thirteen in my first.”

Max felt a bit more relaxed at hearing that, opposed to Pete’s shocked reaction at hearing such a big number. It made Max feel that maybe it was normal. Skewed sense of normal, but still.

“But because I had help from my brother and the band, it didn't get worse.” Mikey continued. “The first person was the worst though. It's been ten years and I'm still not over it.” He frowned, getting quiet for a moment before speaking again. “But, it drove me to try and control it. And by the end of the following week, I had managed to stop killing. Twenty one lives to my name.”

Max shrunk back in his seat a bit. Twenty one seemed so minuscule to how much he'd done.

At seeing Max’s response, Mikey quickly kept going. “So it's good that we found you when we did. You won't kill much more. It might be a few more times before you can get it under control, but I'll help you.”

Max looked down at his feet unsurely. Pete's method meant no more killing from the start. Mikey's involved a few more lives needing to be taken. Maybe he should just go with Pete's route. It was safer..

“I'll make sure you have proper control over your magic before you drink from a human again.” Mikey assured him at seeing his hesitation. “Two lives tops. I swear. It probably won't even be that bad. You might be able to do it without taking any more lives.”

“I'm not sure..” Max admitted.

“Alright.” Mikey sighed. “You can keep drinking from those shit bags if you want. But, you do have to admit, learning how to control your magic from me would be better than learning from Peter. He hasn't even used his wings in _years_. I doubt if he even knows how to pull them into existence anymore.”

“Oh, he showed me his wings a few weeks ago.” Max chimed in. “They looked sweet, dude. That golden sheen to them? Do they all look like that?”

“Golden?” Mikey raised an eyebrow in confusion. Maybe Max had just been seeing things. Vampire wings were always black due to the magic they held. Golden wings would mean something that wasn't black magic flowing through him. Maybe he'd denied being a vampire for so long that his body rejected all black magic he had, Mikey wondered. “No, Peter’s probably just a special case.” Mikey glanced around before looking back to Max and with ease pulling out his wings into view.

Max was a rather taken aback by the sudden appearance. They seemed bigger than Pete’s. Maybe by an extra foot or something. But they were definitely totally black in color.

“Has Peter not shown you how to do this?” Mikey shook his head as he laid his wings against his back instead of outstretched so he wouldn't attract attention.

“No, but he mentioned them..” Max said, wanting to know now how to do what he'd done.

“Peter gets total wing envy, he's probably afraid yours will be larger.” Mikey laughed loudly. Max laughed a bit too, not having seen Pete as someone who would have a sort of Napoleon complex.

“So how do I go about doing that?”

“Well, you just have to envision your wings. It's a lot easier to do than you probably think. A lot of the magic we can use has to do with thinking what you want-”

“Max!”

The one in question turned his head in the direction he'd heard his name, seeing Pete rushing towards them. He looked at Mikey quickly before looking back to Pete, who stopped in front of them, looking more than a little pissed off.

“Come to spoil our fun?” Mikey frowned at Pete, who answered by flipping him off..

“What are you trying to pull here?” Pete asked Mikey.

“Just wanted to save him from a life of hiding away like a coward.” Mikey answered. “You aren't the first person someone should go to for vampire advice, Peter.” Pete made a face at hearing Mikey use his full name like that, which just earned a sly smile from the other. “Fits you better.”

“Hey-”

“Dammit Mikey, you can't just steal Max away.” Pete said, not having heard Max speak.

“Steal? I'm doing him a favor.”

“Pete, Mikey-”

“By turning him into a killer?” Pete frowned at Mikey. “Your method is so not safe.”

“Have you even tried? You're the one too scared to do anything because you're a vampire-”

“Hey!”

Finally the two looked at Max, wondering what he was yelling about.

“Did I do it right?” Max asked with a wide grin, fluttering the wings that now stuck out from his back.

“I-” Pete’s frown stayed on his face as he looked at Max. “Y-yeah.”

Mikey glanced to Pete and raised an eyebrow in amusement.

Pete rolled his eyes at Mikey's gesture. No, he definitely _was not_ jealous that Max’s wings were nearly the size of Patrick’s wings. Nope. Not at all.

“Max, we should get going.” Pete says after a minute, frowning at Mikey before looking back to Max. “ _Michael_ doesn’t know what he’s doing.”  
“I showed him more than you have.” Mikey countered, not liking the hostile attitude Pete was giving off. Sure they weren’t nearly as close as they were a decade ago, but it wasn’t like they hated each other. Or at least, Mikey didn’t think of it that way. Maybe Pete did all along?  
“And I’m sure he’s happy with what you’ve already shown him, but he isn’t _yours_ to teach.” Pete narrowed his eyes at the other vampire. He wanted to prove to him that he wasn’t a screw up as a vampire. He hardly embraced everything that went along with being one, and he knows that, but helping Max to not kill would be rectifying where he went wrong with Mikey.  
“Don’t I get a say in this?” The youngest of the three stood up from the bench and shook his head, not understanding where all this hostility was coming from. The two apparently had a lot of pent up history or something.  
“Trust me when I say you don’t want to learn his way.” Pete said, looking to Mikey with the hostile look. “You’ll surely end up killing more people that way.”  
“I can make my own decisions, _dad_.” Max laughed quietly at his own joke which seemed to shake Pete from his attitude. “I’m not a kid, or your son or some weird shit like that, man. I am fully capable of making decisions.”  
“And?” Mikey tilted his head, “What is your decision, then?”  
Max shrugged as an answer. “Why do I have to choose? Why can’t you both help me? The more the merrier and that junk, right? I can learn magic shit from Mikey, and passing as human from Pete. Best of both worlds, baby!” He grinned widely at the older vampires, hoping that his choice made enough sense to them.  
Pete and Mikey looked at each other for a moment, neither really eager about Max’s decision. They wanted to help him in their own way. Mikey was sure that Pete would end up forcing Max to reject being a vampire, and Pete was positive Mikey would turn him into a killing machine.  
“Fine by me.” Mikey finally answered after a minute, breaking his gaze away from Pete to give Max a thumbs up in agreement. It wasn’t ideal, but there was no way he could let Pete corrupt this young vampire.  
“You signed the contract, you agreed to let me help you.” Pete chimed in. Even if Mikey was going to be involved, if Max was adamant about having him help as well, he wouldn’t reject Max from him or anything. He still had to prove to Mikey that his way was much safer for vampires to follow. “If you want Mikey along, we’ll have Mikey along.”

“No more fighting?” Max crossed his arms over his chest and gave the two a look over, as if he was the one that was in charge here.  
Mikey laughed a bit and stood up from the bench as well. “Yes, _son_ , as long as your _other_ father doesn't start shit again.” He gave an amused look to Pete who just rolled his eyes in response once again.

Max laughed loudly at Mikey playing into his joke. There was no way this could go wrong. Learning to be a proper vampire while still holding onto some of his humanity. This will be totally smooth sailing.

Pete on the other hand was still less than thrilled. “We should get back to the others. Patrick wasn’t exactly happy with me for leaving.” He looked back to Mikey, with a bit of a frown still, having an unanswered question that he wanted to know. “By the way. How was it you knew I had Max with me?”

“Gerard’s friends are always listening, Peter. Be careful what you say.” Mikey smiled at him innocently.  
“Gerard has been having his _friends_ keeping tabs on me?” Pete was even less thrilled now.  
“Don’t feel special. The fairies are always around, and sometimes he decides to check in with them.”  
“Doesn’t he have anything better to do with his time?” The elder vampire sighed as he shook his head. Just what he needed. The royal fairy prince keeping an eye on him. And probably moreso now that Mikey was by him.  
“Fairies?” Max raised an eyebrow, totally interested in what was going on now. Fairies existed? What else existed?  
This new ‘normal’ was going to take a lot of getting used to, but he was totally excited to learn about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends! We have some news. Some really really huge news. I'm back! I (twentyonepilotsandknuckles aka Jenni) am back and I will be going back to helping out with the writing. It's not exactly a happy thing that I'm back after just 3 of the 18 months I was supposed to be gone, and it's kind of an adjustment and I'm dealing with a lot of emotions about it. So bear with me as I get back into the swing of things and as I learn to look at the bright side of all of this. Like that I get to write again and be part of our universe planning and headcanoning! I'm really excited to be able to take part in this once more. And huge huge thank yous to all of you who have taken part in this universe so far. Your comments and kudos and continued interest in what we do brings us such immense joy. It brings /me/ such immense joy, to be able to see what we work on together being enjoyed and accepted in the bandoms. I hope you we continue to share this little slice of life we have together here on this website. Thank you for your interest and your patience as Jess had to run the whole show by herself. She's an amazing writer and I'm so glad I get to write with her again! I love her so much. Thank you for supporting us both as this story unfolds.   
> For any of you newer people who don't know who I am, check out my tumblr at twentyonepilotsandknuckles.tumblr.com and stuff. We'll be making a more detailed post about why I am home and what's going down right now over at our mythomusicians tumblr a little later on today.   
> I have so much love for you all, stay out of trouble and stay in school! Muchas gracias por leer este fanfic! Les quiero mucho!
> 
> xojnni (twentyonepilotsandknuckles)


	10. Chapter 10

When Patrick finally woke back up, he was greeted with a bottle of apple juice from a convenience store around the corner from the venue, provided by Joe. He thanked his friend as he sipped at the juice a bit too fast, wanting to get down to business before his dark magic dwindled away. It usually took about two or three days for that to happen, but he didn't want to take any chances having less control over the magic as the days went on. And besides, using the dark magic would lower his supply anyway. He needed to have as much available to his use as he could. Once the dark magic-tinged angel downed the bottle of juice, he brought his attention back to Tyler and Blurry.

“Dark magic is usually channeled through a selfish desire, rather than the selfless desire that white magic requires.” Patrick started to explain. “And with any type of magic, the basics all involve thought. Envision what you want to happen, really focus on it, and it will.”

Tyler nodded at Patrick’s advice. Based on what he'd learned so far, that much seemed to be true. Whenever he wanted to play around with the hellfire, all Tyler ever had to do was imagine it appearing, and making it go away worked in a similar manner too.

“As for the transference magic that this will require, you need contact with the thing you're trying to move.” The angel continued, looking to Blurry and gently placing a hand on his shoulder. Tyler nodded again, signaling for Patrick to continue further. The sooner he explained and demonstrated, the sooner Blurry will be back where he belongs. “Are you set?” He asked the tulpa.

Blurry hesitated for a moment before answering. “Yes, I think I'm okay.” _Thanks for letting me shack up in here for a while, Joshie._

_My head’s always open for you, Blurry._

Blurry smiled and nodded with a bit more assurance this time.

“Feel the desire to want to move Blurry to, or from, your mind, and the magic should do what you need it to do.” Patrick said as his hand starting emitting a subtle dark light.

Blurry closed his eyes, inhaling deeply as he felt the dark magic around him, seeming to pull at him. He resigned to the magic, letting it take him away from Josh's mind and move to Patrick’s.

When he opened his eyes, he noticed he was definitely in Patrick’s seat, and looking to his side he saw what was definitely Josh sitting there beside him, and Tyler across from him.

“Okay, I think I got it.” He heard Tyler say.

He went to go respond, but for some reason he couldn't. Blurry couldn't say anything. Why couldn't he say anything? He was definitely in control right now. He was in no mind space.

“Blurry, you really make Patrick look cool.” Josh commented with a grin. Due to Blurry’s addition, Patrick’s appearance had changed in the way that Josh's and Tyler's had. The angel’s hair turned dark, black, matching the color of his wings, and along with that his fingertips seemed to have the black paint look to them. But for some reason, his eyes were still blue as if Blurry wasn't in there.

“Something's not right…” Blurry heard Patrick’s voice say. And his mouth moved when he spoke. But he himself didn't speak.

It was as if they were both in control at once, or something.

“Not… Not right?” Tyler's stomach dropped. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“You say I look different. But I'm still in control.” Patrick said with a frown, shaking his head. This wasn't making sense. From his understanding, his appearance only was supposed to change when Blurry was in control, and he was sitting in the mind space. But he wasn't in a mind space. “What-what's happening-” Blurry was finally able to speak, but it didn't feel right. Not just because it wasn't Josh or Tyler that he was speaking from, but the fact there seemed to be no mind space to go to. “Ty?”

“Your eyes are red.” Josh said, then frowning. “And now they aren't.”

“Something's definitely not right.” Patrick spoke, shaking his head and trying to place what was going on.

“Blurry? Blurry, is everything okay?” Tyler was growing more and more worried about this situation. What if he disappears again? Tyler wouldn't be able to live with himself. He shouldn't have had Patrick demonstrate.

“He's…” Patrick's eyes flashed back to red. “I'm here. I'm okay, I think. I don't know. I d-don't have a single clue what's going on-and-and-” Blurry took a deep shaky breath before they saw his eyes turn back to blue.

“I'm-” Patrick couldn't make heads or tails of this. His databases in his mind said nothing about this. And for some reason, he was having a very hard time keeping calm. Blurry’s current state was definitely affecting him. _Blurry? Can you hear me?_ Patrick thought, but received no answer. There was no mind space to call out to, so of course there wouldn't be an answer.

“There-there's no mindspace.” Patrick managed to say after a minute of trying to calm down. “We're both fighting for control at the same time.” His eyes went red again. “How is this-why-Tyler?” Blurry looked to his counterpart, pleading for some sort of answer. He felt a hand on his back and instinctively cringed away before realizing it was Josh trying to help calm his panic.

Back to blue. “Tyler, try-try to see if you can take me back.” Patrick furrowed his brow. Had he referred to _himself_ as Blurry? “Take Blurry, rather.” Patrick corrected, shaking his head to himself.

Tyler nodded quickly, grabbing Patrick’s, or Blurry’s, hand and trying to focus on what Patrick had told him before this chaos. He saw his hand give off that same dark glow that Patrick’s had, but nothing seemed to have changed.

“Why-why isn't it working?” Tyler asked to no one in particular. He was doing exactly what Patrick said. His hand was doing the glowing thing too!

“They're both in control.” Dallon inferred, putting his hand against Patrick’s forehead to use his magic to calm his/Blurry’s emotions. “The lack of mind space is causing an issue.”

“Can he just create one or something? Doesn't everyone have a mind space?” Brendon asked, trying to help in some way.

Patrick's eyes went back to red and he flinched away at hearing Brendon’s voice, Dallon’s magic not having much of a help with everything going on around him. He's stuck in Patrick. Tyler's freaking out. Brendon is nearby. Everyone else is staring. There's too much going on. Too much to handle. There's just too much _everything._ He felt his breathing quicken again, and everything around him was starting to blur together. “I-I'm scared, Ty-Joshie-I-” He yanked his hand away from Tyler and closed his eyes tightly as he tried to make himself seem as small as he could, the angel wings moving to cocoon himself off from the world.

“Blurry-Patrick-” Josh started, unsure what to do in this situation. He looked to Tyler worriedly, who returned nearly the same look. Josh looked back to the angel, placing his hand against his back again between the wings. He felt him cringe away, but Josh kept his hand there until he seemed to grow a bit more comfortable. “We're-we're going to figure this out. We're going to find out what caused this and we're going to fix this.” Josh assured him, speaking in a quiet voice so he wouldn't alarm him further.

Tyler nodded in agreement, moving to the other side of Patrick and placing his hand above Josh’s. “We aren't going to give up. We'll get everyone back where they belong. Whatever it takes, Blurry.”

Blurry’s breathing seemed to have calmed down substantially due to Tyler and Josh’s efforts, but his wings still stayed tight around him.

“We're all here for ya, dude.” Joe chimed in.

“Even if you don't want us to be.” Brendon added. “We fuckin’ care and we're gonna all solve this shit.”

“Just a magical mishap. We can fix this.” Andy reassured. “It's not the worst we’ve been through.”

With a bit more time, the wings finally unfurled as he had calmed down enough. “Thank you…” He said quietly, taking a few deep breaths to stay calm from his panic attack. At this point, even though they couldn't hear each other, the two could definitely agree they wore themselves down to the point of exhaustion. Dallon joined in by handing him a bottle of water, helping him guide it to his mouth to be sure the attack didn't get him dehydrated. Patrick thanked him with a quiet mumble, leaning against Josh’s arm and absentmindedly nuzzling into it for comfort.

No one could tell who it was due to his eyes being shut, but Josh figured it must be Blurry who was seeking his comfort out. “Rest for now, dude. It's going to be alright.” Josh reassured him. The black angel wings moved to envelop both Josh and Tyler, keeping them close beside him as he dozed off finally, calmed down by everyone's efforts.

This was definitely going to be a struggle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'd like to say we have an excuse for updating this so late  
> but um  
> sorry

Everyone looked towards the door as it opened, quiet argument filling the once silent air.

“No, Mikey, we are _not_ starting there.” Pete grumbled.

“He has to start somewhere, Peter.” Mikey retorted.

“So start him at the basics or some shit, I don’t fucking care, but not _that_.”

“And why not?” Mikey took a stance, unaware that everyone who was awake was staring at them.

Pete, however, noticed. “It’s too fucking dangerous. Now drop it,” he hissed at Mikey, then jabbing him with his elbow to get him to come back to earth. Mikey finally took in his surroundings and realized the silent stares and sleeping people.

“Uh, hey.”

“Uh, hey, Mikey. Got any news for us or somethin’, Pete?” Joe asked. Tyler and Josh, as well as Patrick, were the only two who hadn't looked over, and Pete soon noticed it was because they were on either side of Patrick, all asleep.

Mikey made his rounds, shaking the present company’s hands, despite the bewildered looks. He, at least, had been expecting them.

“Uh, yeah, you all know Mikey,” he shot a glare at the one in question. “He's going to be helping me with Max.”

Joe snickered quietly while Andy let out a small sigh. That actually improved Max’s chances of not fucking up, he figured. He didn't know Mikey that well as a vampire, but if he hadn't made a name for himself in the magical world yet, he probably was doing something right.

Pete shrugged off Joe’s laughter and brought his attention to a still sleeping Patrick. “Hey, everything okay with them? Go well?”

Everyone present kind of stared at Pete, unsure what to say, what to tell him.

The silence was starting to grow extremely uncomfortable when Brendon spoke up. “No, actually. But, uh, it’s fixable, probably.”

Pete’s brow creased as Max and Mikey watched on in moderate confusion. “No? Probably? Someone better tell me what happened. Are they okay? Is Patrick okay?” Pete started to worry, heading over to kneel in front of Patrick.

“Tyler and Josh are fine. They fell asleep with him in his wings. It’s Patrick and Blurry that are having problems.”

Mikey raised an eyebrow. “Blurry?” He questioned.

“We’ll fill you in later,” Pete snapped, gently nudging his best friend, attempting to wake him up, noticing his black hair very quickly. “Patrick?”

The one in question grunted slightly, acknowledging Pete’s presence.

“Trick, come on, wake up, talk to me.”

“Nnh.. wha...” Patrick opened his eyes slightly. Pete looked, and then stared, wide eyed, forehead creased with worry. This wasn’t normal. He turned to look at Andy.

“Why are his eyes purple?” Pete paused for a moment, turning his attention back to the other vampires. “Mikey, could you, um,” He hated this, but Patrick’s safety was more important than his injured pride.

Mikey, who had been patiently observing, looked to Pete. “Yes, Peter?”

Pete shot a single dagger at Mikey. He didn't have the patience to be hostile at him right now. “Just.. Take Max. Teach him something good. I need to talk with these guys right now. I’ll have Andy or Dallon explain later.”

Mikey nodded, sensing the general unease and fear of the room, and started to guide Max out to another room. “Follow me, we’ll start with something small.”

Max nodded and followed Mikey out, not daring to protest against Pete’s serious tone.

The commotion began to wake Josh and Tyler, who just yawned and stretched out before remembering the circumstances in which they fell asleep. Who knew that being wrapped up in wings like that would make you feel that sleepy all of a sudden?

“Purple?” Patrick asked, shooting awake. If something was off before, this was another problem entirely.

The room fell silent, no one wanted to speak. What could they say? No one had a clue what was going on. Pete searched Patrick’s eyes, trying to understand. Tyler had his hand on Patrick’s back. Andy and Joe glanced at each other with worry. Brendon and Dallon simply observed, both going through what knowledge they had access to.

“Yeah, man, they're purple.”

Patrick turned, looking between Tyler and Pete.

Tyler’s breath caught. “Blurry? Or, or Patrick?”

Patrick seemed to look down, trying to focus, thinking carefully before answering. He couldn't identify himself one way or the other. All he knew was that he was very scared and very confused. He took a few deep breaths before looking back up at Tyler. “Yes,” he started. “Yes, I’m... Yeah.”

“That doesn't answer shit,” Brendon spoke up.

“Well I'm fuckin’ sorry, Brendon, but I don’t know how else to answer. I’m... I’m just me. I don't know.” Patrick put his face in his hands, trying to keep calm. He was somehow both afraid and angry with the demon. “I don't know..” He muttered. Josh put a hand on his back and he momentarily jumped.

“It's okay, Blurry, I'm here.”

Patrick sighed and leaned into Josh’s touch. “Thanks,” he half-whispered.

Pete sighed. “Patrick, are you okay? Do you want some time to be alone? We can.. We can all go to another room. Grab some food or something, I don't know.” He looked over his best friend, concerned about what was going through his head. He still had no idea what had happened, but he could infer.

“Just... Fewer people? Please?” Patrick, or Blurry, finally said, exasperated, after a few minutes of breathing slowly.

Joe nodded and stood. “Andy and I will go, Brendon, something tells me you should too. Let's get some research done before we have to pull ourselves together to rehearse.”

“I'll go with you,” Dallon said, standing. “With Patrick out of commission, you could use my knowledge, too.” Joe nodded and all together they headed for the door.

**::::**

Brendon let out a long sigh as the four of them ended up in a different room of the venue, one that would probably later be named as one of their dressing rooms.

“Well this is a fuckin’ mess.”

“But, we can fix this.” Andy insisted, refusing to believe that there wasn't a way to reverse whatever had caused this to happen.

Joe frowned, not liking this situation much himself. “Got any bright ideas then?”

“I'm sure I've got something…” Andy mumbled, taking out a small book from his back pocket. He thumbed through the pages as the three waited rather impatiently for some hopefully good news. “Um…” Andy frowned as he turned a few pages back. “Would something like what we used to separate Patrick and Mephisto work here?”

Dallon gave a shrug. “Maybe. My databases have almost no information on tulpas aside from saying what they are.”

“Same.” Brendon added.

“But this is different.” Joe pointed out. “We wanted to get rid of that demon from Patrick. Like, destroy it. I really don't think Tyler or Josh would appreciate their friend being wiped out.”

“Well, what if we make a talisman again?” Dallon asked. “Something that can make a clear difference between Pat and Blurry so Tyler can pull Blurry back.”

“That's a really specific talisman. I don't think that thing even exists.” Andy shook his head as he continued searching through his book.

“How bout I go on in there and pull him out myself?”

Dallon shot Brendon a look. “Seriously? Because that worked so well last time you tried to do that.”

“Hey the more the merrier! We can have three minds on the inside figuring this out!” The demon grinned at the angel, who in return looked like he wanted to strangle him.

“Patrick is an angel, even if Blurry is there. I don't think you'd be able to possess him anyway.” Joe frowned again. Their ideas were getting really limited now. “And frankly, I don't think I can make something that can separate them. This seems like a magic-only kind of solution here.”

Andy sighed as he set his book down, shaking his head. “Anything we suggest could end up making Blurry vanish.” He concludes. “Or Patrick if we screw it up.”

Joe crossed his arms in thought. “We're going to need to do some actual research on this. This is completely new.”

“But, we _can_ fix this, right?” Dallon asked quietly.

“Of course we can! We've got this!” Brendon insisted, patting Dallon’s back enthusiastically.

“But, realistically.” The angel’s wings drooped down at his sides as he spoke. “What if this isn't something we can fix? What if this is a permanent thing?”

“What if Blurry is stuck in Patrick…” Andy looked down, already feeling defeated.

“Stop being so cynical. We won't fix anything if we don't fuckin’ try.”

“Brendon's right.” Joe nodded. “If we give up we lost before we've even begun.”

Dallon shook his head. “We have to think of that possibility though. If this really is something that we can't fix without harming Blurry, will we still go through with it? What will we tell the pilot boys?” The angel let out a heavy sigh. “I don't think any of us want to bear that news.”

The other three quietly agreed with that. Even if Blurry hated Brendon, and was rather uncomfortable around Andy and Joe, if their solution was to get rid of Blurry, they don't think they could handle that. Blurry was still a person, despite the circumstances of how he came to be.

“Just… Let's just keep thinking.” Joe said finally. “There has to be _something_ …”

“I really hope you're right about that.” Andy added, unable to help the feeling of dread passing over him nonetheless.

**::::**

“So this is..” Pete frowned, trying to figure out how he could even begin to describe what was going on.

“A big fucking problem?” Patrick said, frowning right back at Pete, but ending up with a little bit of a smirk. He took a deep breath and leaned a bit more into Josh’s touch. “I’m.. I’m okay,” he said finally, closing his eyes and just trying to relax. “Nothing hurts, it's just confusing as hell.”

“We should pick one name and stick to it,” Tyler offered and Pete nodded in agreement.

“Patrick,” the angel said. “It's his- it's my body, so Patrick.” He opened his eyes and looked back at Pete. “I tried to pull Blurry out of Josh and put him into Tyler, but I ended up mixing with Patr- with Blurry instead of having a mindspace,” he explained with a sigh.

“Don't worry, guys. We’ll unfuck this up,” Pete assured him, patting his leg gently. “Blurry will make it back to Tyler and Patrick will be all alone just like he likes it.”

“Things alright in here?” Dallon asked, peeking his head in. “Feeling okay?”

“Yeah,” Patrick turns to the angel and nods, trying to give him a reassuring smile. “You guys can come back in if you want.”

Dallon gave him a thumbs up before heading back out, presumably to fetch everyone else, returning with everyone aside from Max and Mikey to discuss what their options are.

**::::**

Mikey and Max left the room and decided to stick around in the hall outside the door, Mikey saying whatever they were dealing with would probably settle down in just a little while. Max seemed to think otherwise, that whole situation looked like a huge mess, but didn't want to argue with Mikey.

“So…” Max started, rocking back and forth on his feet a bit impatiently. He wanted to learn whatever Mikey had to teach. He had a feeling Mikey would be a much different teacher than Pete has been. “What first?”

Mikey thought for a moment. As much as he would love to start with just teaching him how to feed without killing or turning anyone, that would probably be too soon to do such a thing. He needs to learn to control his magic before controlling his venom. “Compulsion.”

“What's that supposed to be?”

“It's like…” Mikey had to give it some more thought. Teaching someone something he's known for years is easier said than done. “Compulsion usually involves getting others to do things for you that they wouldn't usually do. Whether it be for them to follow you somewhere, or to give you something they have, that kind of thing.” Mikey started to explain. “It doesn't take as much energy to use as Seduction does, so this is probably a good place to start.”

“Then what's Seduction?” Max asked with a raised brow, too curious about all this new terminology.

“It’s kind of similar to Compulsion, but Seduction is more commonly used to get someone to give their blood willingly to you.” Mikey said, but not wanting to get too much into the details of that, he turns the topic back to what he wanted to teach. “As I mentioned earlier, most magic can be done with just the power of thought, and this is the same type of thing.”

Max nodded to show that he was listening to what he had to say.

“You focus that magic on someone and you can convey your request through words, although when you get more advanced with this you can just do it with motions.” The elder vampire explained.

“How do I… Focus magic on someone?”

Mikey gave it another few moments of thought. “You have to be in tune with that magic within you. Vampires don't get a whole lot of magic compared to a lot of other dark beings, but what we have is strong so.” Mikey gave a vague shrug to end the open ended sentence.

“In tune…” Max nodded slowly. “So, that voice that pounds in my head whenever I get thirsty and stuff, is that basically the magic speaking?”

“The what?” Mikey made a face of confusion at Max’s words. A voice?

“Yeah, y'know, that thing that when you're feeding on someone it tells you to keep going until they're dry?” Max asked, raising an eyebrow at Mikey’s reaction to this.

“Oh, r-right…” Mikey said a bit hesitantly. In all his experience of being a vampire, he had never once heard a _voice_ telling him to give in to instincts. Sure the first few weeks were rough and it was hard to control his instincts, but in no way were they ever considered a _voice_ more than just an _urge_. Mikey makes a mental note to mention it to Pete. Maybe he knows what he's talking about. “Yeah…”

Max grinned at Mikey, glad to finally be making some sense of some of these things now. “Okay, that doesn't sound too difficult.”

Mikey nodded and peered his head back to the room with the others, seeing things have calmed down slightly. Enough where they could probably go back in and wouldn't cause a ruckus too much. “Give it a try on one of them.” Mikey motioned to the room. “It won't work on other vampires, but everyone else should be fair game. I suggest starting with something simple.”

“ _Simple_.” Max practically scoffed at the word. “I totally got this, baby.” He strutted into the room, followed closely by Mikey.

Max glanced around at the others, trying to figure out who he could get to do what. He felt like he had so much power right now. Max’s eyes settled on Josh, who he saw sitting beside Tyler and across from Pete and a rather dreary looking Patrick. “Hey.” When Max spoke, they all looked in his direction curiously.

Pete looked from Max to Mikey with a questioning eyebrow, wondering what he had in store. Mikey mouthed the word ‘compulsion’ back to Pete, who grinned a bit as he focused back on Max. Although he wasn't super interested in having anything to do with vampire magic, Compulsion could be a fun trick to have. Max could make one of them get up and dance, or open up Twitter and post some embarrassing status, or-

“Josh, Patrick's lookin’ kinda bummed, don't you think? A kiss would probably cheer him up a bit.” Max grinned before quickly adding, “on his lips, of course.”

Everyone gave Max a blank stare, although Pete’s could be described more as a glare rather than a stare, which he then directed in Mikey’s direction.

Before Mikey could say anything about how Max made his own decision about this, or even cut in and stop it from happening, they hear one of the fold up chairs screech backwards as Josh stood up and headed towards Patrick.

“W-wait, Joshie!” Patrick’s face flushed red as Josh neared him, and he scooted his chair away a bit, his heart pounding way too fast. _Is he really doing this right now?!_

Josh reached over and grabbed the side of the chair so Patrick couldn't move the chair away, the Compulsion still totally in effect.

“J-jo-” Before Patrick could get a word out, he felt Josh’s lips press against his. His heart seemed to pound even faster than before, eyes squeezed shut as he held the sides of the chair in a grip so tight his knuckles started turning white. He went to instinctively kiss back, but before he could, he heard the door slam open.

“Sorry I'm late I-” the voice trailed off at seeing the scene. Josh pulled away at that, Max’s focus breaking which meant Josh was free from the magic. All heads turned to the voice, and they saw none other than Kenny standing there.

Kenny. The only one who didn't know what everyone besides Brendon was.

His eyes slowly surveyed the room, Dallon’s huge-ass white wings immediately catching his attention. “...wings.” As Kenny looked around more, he saw another set of wings on the back of Patrick, who had just kissed Josh? Why were Josh and Patrick kissing?

After a little while of silence, Kenny finally spoke up, “did I miss the memo of dress rehearsal being taken literally here?” Despite saying that, the wings looked so real. Way too good to just be dress up costumes.

“Yeah, uh, dress up…” Brendon laughed hesitantly, knowing very well now that no one would be able to hide it from Kenny any longer. He looked over to Dallon, who looked like he wanted to scream. He wasn't planning on telling Kenny the whole angel thing until a long while from now, if he'd ever even gotten around to it anyway.

The situation being totally overwhelming, Patrick’s wings immediately clamshell him away from everyone as Josh started regaining his senses, his face flushing red as well at realizing what he'd just done. “Blurry…?”

Patrick winced away, his wings wrapping himself off tighter from everything.

“Oh my god,” Kenny said breathlessly. Patrick’s wings just moved. Like, like real wings do. “Um, explanation?” Kenny begged. He knows he just walked in on something and he's really hoping it's not some weird demon shit.

“Blurry, I’m sorry, oh my god..” Josh is totally defeated, that was not okay. “Max,” he turned his attention to the young vampire, who suddenly looks awful sheepish.

“Max?” Kenny looked to follow Josh’s gaze to some kid looking guilty, and next to him is Mikey Way? His brow creased in further confusion, desperately trying to put pieces together.

Pete stood up and sighed, “okay, there's an explanation for everything, I swear.” He took it upon himself as the oldest in the room to be the one to explain. “You're one of the only humans in the room.”

That didn't really set Kenny at ease, if he was being honest.

“The… Only human?” Kenny asked, looking around at everyone. “How is that-”

“One of the only humans.” Pete reiterated, frowning. He really didn't want to add explaining the magical world to a human to his list of problems today. This better not lead to more stress drinking. “You can kind of already tell what Trick and Dallon are.”

“This is just a joke right? To like, punish me for being late or whatever?” Kenny asked, still not believing his eyes. “Because Dan isn’t even here yet.”

“No, he's right. Pete's right.” Dallon sighed, extending his wings out a bit. “I'm just as human as Brendon is.”

“Which means he's far from it.” Brendon said with a bit of a smirk.

“But everyone else-”

“Vampires look pretty human, don't they?” Mikey chimed in, laughing a bit.

“So how many of you are actually human?” Kenny asked, still trying to get a grip on it all. It was hard enough to accept Brendon being a demon, but angels and vampires too?

“Our lucky humans involve Joe, Andy, technically Tyler, and Josh.” Pete explained.

“Technically?” Kenny questioned, furrowing his brow.

Tyler got up to fill Kenny in on how Blurry came to be, Mikey and Max listening on in too. They definitely don't mind story time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know we've been kinda MIA for a little while, but i swear to you guys that this universe is sooooo so so not abandoned  
> we've just been working on other things, side things, for this universe, and we wanted to solidify a few things  
> but we're gonna start updating again!!!! maybe not as often as we did, but we're working on it, so please be patient!!!  
> in the meantime, pls stay tuned at mythomusicians.tumblr.com for any updates about posting schedules and other works and such!!  
> we're really excited to get back into the swing of it, but pls just be a bit patient with us!!! 'n'  
> ( also, we've made a blog for our lovely little tulpa if you want a snapshot into his life ;-) blurry-bee.tumblr.com )  
> we'll see you guys soon, we swear!!!!  
> <3<3<3


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finished writing it. Just sayin'.

As they were talking, Joe went to take a seat beside Josh, who was sitting beside Patrick, apologizing profusely for what Max made him do.

“Can I talk to you for a minute, man?” Joe asked, looking at Josh.

“Um, yeah.” He answered after a moment, rubbing Patrick’s back for a little longer before getting up. “You'll be okay?”

Patrick nodded slowly and waved the drummer off. “I'll-I'm okay.” He managed, rubbing at his face to get rid of the redness that was still there. Pete went ahead and replaced Josh’s seat and Patrick leaned against him, not quite able to stop blushing from all of the emotions running through him.

Joe beckoned for Josh to follow him over to an unoccupied corner of the room, wanting to keep their conversation private from the all-hearing ears of the local vampires.

Joe leaned against the wall. “You shouldn't be included in that human count, should you?” he asked directly, not giving a chance for small talk.

“I-”

“I might have overheard you and the Blurster.” Joe admitted. Before Josh could refuse, Joe shook his head with a bit of a grin on his face. “Don't worry. Three time abductee here.”

“You…” Josh looked at him curiously. “You believe me? About the not human thing?”

“Yeah, dude, no worries.” Joe assured him. “It’s interesting though. You look completely human. How did you just figure it out? I feel like being alien would be something you’d know your whole life.”

Josh hesitated a moment before confiding in Joe the events that led him to this, specifically the closet and what he heard and saw.

“Shit, no way, you're a Symphonic?” Joe asked, brows raised in surprise.

“A what?” Josh asks, his mouth twisting into a frown.

“Not sure if that's what they're actually called. I can't understand ‘em too well. That whole not speaking English thing gets in the way sometimes. I think they've tried to tell me a few times and that’s what it sounds like they say. They don't seem to mind. If they can understand me, anyway.” Joe said with a laugh and a shrug. “Kind of one sided conversations. But, they're the ones that visit me. The language of sounds and music? Yeah, that's definitely a trait of theirs.”

“So-so I'm not going crazy?” Josh asked with a bit of a laugh. Maybe asking that to the abductee is what makes him crazy.

“Crazy’s good sometimes, man.” Joe laughs too. “Can you speak it?”

“Speak?”

“Well, I guess it's not really spoken. They never move their mouths when they talk,” he pondered aloud. “I can't hear their language without them touching me.”

“A language spoken through contact?” Josh asked, trying to process all this information that Joe knows. Somehow, that seemed to make sense. Seemed to be familiar. Vaguely.

The guitarist simply nodded.

“What do they look like?” Josh asked curiously. There has to be a reason he never knew what he was.

“Pretty human, honestly.” Joe said, thinking back to the times he could remember being abducted. “They've got these totally black eyes and stripes. These fuckin’ awesome looking antennae too.” He explained, gesturing up at his head for about their placement. “Some of them have these really sweet shiny white lookin’ eyes though. And whiskers. Might be a gender thing, I think. They're really kinda cat-like too.”

“....Cat like?” Josh was super interested. This could be what he is. Who he is. Knowing someone who knows about what this alien stuff is? How lucky could he get right now, honestly?

“They purr when they're happy with something, I've noticed like this really neat sound, straight up like a cat’s purr.” He said. “They're like, super affectionate too. Always like nuzzling together and shit.”

Josh stayed quiet as he processed everything. Honestly, this could definitely explain his love for space and cats if it’s true. If he’s Symphonic or whatever. It's probably true. Everything that Joe said seemed to be registering something to him. Some sort of familiarity. “Then how come I look more human than they do?” He finally asked, as if Joe would know the answer.

“There's probably some Symphonic somewhere in your ancestry.” Joe guessed. “Like maybe a grandparent or great grandparents or something. Maybe even one of your very own parents.”

Josh shook his head with a quiet scoff at the last one. If his parents were anything but human, surely they would have told him. And his brother and sisters. “So how do I go about looking like that?”

Joe frowned. “I dunno if that's possible. I'll have to see if I can contact them again or somethin’. If we want to ask the guys they might be able to figure it out, too.”

Josh sighed but shook his head. “Thanks, Joe. Honestly. But I think I'm going to keep this private for now. We’ve got enough to deal with.” Things seemed to make a bit more sense on that end now. He ended up with more questions than answers, but at least it's a start. This alien thing could actually be legit.

 

“So what I'm understanding, if I've got this right, is that Brendon fucked up big time and it didn't end in complete disaster because my longtime friend Dallon is a _motherfucking angel_?” Kenny attempted to sum up, receiving a nod from Dallon and frown and unwilling nod from the demon himself.

“Could’ve been much worse,” Patrick said quietly.

Kenny walked around Patrick Pete and Tyler, then looked at Mikey and the new kid, Max. “And vampires are a thing,” he added, the three nodding in response, Max awkwardly shuffling his feet a little.

“You’ll have to forgive our intrusion,” Mikey started. “Maxwell is technically here with Peter, learning how to not murder people.”

“Hey, I’m doing pretty good,” Max frowned at the much older vampire.

“So far,” Pete cut in. “Look, I’m glad story time is out of the way, we can all have a little kumbaya later on. Can we focus on getting our friends back to normal? Please?”

Dallon headed over to the other angel and knelt in front of him, placing a cautious hand on his knee. “You think you can handle being this for a little while?” He asked quietly. Patrick didn't really have to think about it. He didn't really have an option, after all, and if he were being honest he didn't really feel wrong. Overwhelmed, frightened, but the mingling of the personalities was so intense he just felt like it was.. well, normal. He nodded immediately to Dallon’s question, trying to will himself into bravery.

“Yeah. It's not difficult, just.. A lot.”

“Why a while?” Tyler asked as he rubbed his friend’s back, and Andy was the one to speak up, beckoning for Josh and Joe to come join the conversation again.

“Full disclosure guys, we’re not exactly sure how to fix this. Yet! So while we brainstorm and research and shit, we’re going to pretend like it's a normal rehearsal day. Think we can handle that?”

Tyler and Josh nodded. Not having Blurry felt wrong, but they could still practice their set without him. Brendon, Dallon, and Kenny also confirmed they could. They weren't directly affected by this, but Brendon and Dallon were trying to help at least. Kenny would probably get more details out of them later on. His concerns could wait. And they'd have to come clean to Dan later on, too.

So Andy looked to his own band, receiving mixed answers from their expressions. He felt he could keep going while problem solving, but Pete looked distressed, and even Patrick even moreso.

“Are we good to try practicing?” Andy asked, directing it mostly towards Patrick. Pete gave a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

“Um- I think- I think I can do it,” Patrick spoke up. “I mean, I know all of our stuff, I wasn’t- Blurry wasn’t unused to performance,” he added, especially when Pete looked at him in slight disbelief. “Seriously, Pete, I have to at least try.” He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if he just plain backed out, gave up. For all he knew, this would be something he’d have to deal with far longer than he’d prefer.

“All right, let’s take a breather and get ourselves comfortable before we have to get started,” Pete said, followed by a loud sigh. The rest of the room seemed to be in agreement, collectively sighing quietly in regards to the situation before finally standing and splitting off. Using the bathroom, getting a drink, tuning guitars, warming up, whatever they needed to distract themselves. “Mikey,” Pete started, heading over towards him. “Max. I wanna chat with you guys.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess who's back back back again gain gain

Pete sauntered over to Mikey and Max, and Mikey knew exactly what to talk about. It was way more pressing than Max making Josh kiss Patrick. He waited until they headed out into the hall, and he leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms. "Peter," Mikey started. "Maxwell here has something particularly unique going on with him. Never heard of it before."

"Never heard of?" Pete asked curiously as he glanced over to Max. "What do you mean by that?" Mikey knew more about vampire culture than he did, and if he said it was something he'd never seen before... Yeah, maybe Pete was rather concerned.

"Yeah, what do you mean by that?" Max asked, putting on a fake offended expression.    
"I mean you mentioned something about a voice," Mikey said. "I'd like to know more about it before we start jumping to any conclusions."

"What do you mean by a voice?" Pete directed towards Max, throughly confused by what he could possibly mean.    
"I... I thought you said it was normal." Max frowned at Mikey, feeling like the odd man out. "It's that voice that when you're drinking blood, it tells you to keep going even if you're already full." He explained, still frowning. "Are you sure you guys aren't just bullshitting me or something? Like make fun of the new vamp or whatever?"

Pete shook his head rather slowly. "No. We don't have voices like that- is it like, an actual audible voice? You can hear it?" That didn't sound like a good thing. He was fairly certain Max wasn't schizophrenic, especially if it had started specifically after becoming a vampire.

"I mean, it doesn't really form full sentences. But it just like, pounds words into my brain." Max said slowly, still unsure if they were just pulling his leg. "Like it's guiding me or something."

"Sounds like...." Pete frowned and took out his cell, tapping out a text and receiving an immediate answer. "Yeah, sounds like vocalized instincts," he read off, then privately showed the text to Mikey so he knew his source.

"Sounds like what?" Max asked, trying to look over at the message too but his Dads kept it away from him. "What does that mean? Is it bad?" Max really didn't want to be a defective vampire or something. It had been bad enough that he'd been turned into one, but then he learned that something about him wasn't normal? He wasn't quite sure how to handle that. "Don't leave me in the dark, dude."

"You said the voice tells you to keep drinking? What else does it tell you?" Pete asked instead, but Max frowned.    
"Dunno if I should be telling you,” Max admitted. "Kinda like living. As much as I can, anyway."    
Mikey shook his head and sighed. "We're not gonna off you or anything. We want to get to the bottom of this." They needed more information if they wanted to figure this out. How much did this voice know? Did it seem to be sentient? Knowing things that Max didn't?

Max kept frowning, unsure how much he could trust the fact they said they wouldn't get rid of him. But, they led him this far. He figured it would be too much trouble for them to just forget about him now. "Like. When I'm drinking," he started as he took an unnecessary breath. "It tells me to just keep going until they're drained. And even when I've had my fill, it tells me to keep going. Tells me to turn people sometimes too." He admitted. "I manage to tune that out. Most-most of the time." Max hated to admit it. Whenever he would accidentally turn someone, which he didn't think had been often, he would just run off. He didn't know the first thing about being a vampire, so how would he have been able to help them?

"Vocalized instincts," Mikey repeated, looking at Pete. "Doesn't sound like anything more."    
"The voice never explained anything, did it?" Pete checked, and Max shook his head.    
"No. Half the time I'm clueless as to why."    
"I think.. We're going to have to work on ignoring that voice," Pete decided. "It's like you've got so much fuckin' magic your brain doesn't know what to do with it."

"Kinda hard to ignore when it keeps saying the same things over and over." Max frowned. So he  _ was _ a defect then. Too much magic apparently means trouble. Great. "How would having magic make a fucking voice start talking to me?" He couldn't help but to ask.

"I think,..." Mikey started, but took a moment to gather his thoughts. "Okay, so it tells you to turn people, right? It tells you to kill some dry and turn others. Your high quantity of magic makes you a natural vampiric leader," he explained.    
"A brood leader," Pete finished. "A strong vampire in control of weaker ones."

Max made a face at hearing that. "Brood? I don't want a brood." He didn't know much about them, but from what he knew, they were bad news and he wanted no part of that. "I swear I don't." He insisted, rather worried that they thought that he did.

"We don't want a brood either," Pete said with a sigh. "We're a-" he glanced at Mikey, then sucked up his pride. "We're a family here, not a brood. So we're gonna help you out."

"What if you guys can't help me?" Max ended up asking. "A voice doesn't seem to be a common thing based on your reactions." He observed. What if it was something that none of them have heard of before? That no one else had?

"A voice has no literal control over your actions," Mikey said, leaning his head back against the wall and closing his eyes. "It might be hard to ignore or resist, but unless it's moving your limbs, it can't make you do shit."

Max sighed and nodded slightly. Made enough sense. "So... What're we supposed to do then?" He asked, unsure how that's supposed to affect his training at all. Will they be no longer able to help him?

"Um," Pete ran an exasperated hand through his hair. "I mean. Continue as normal, but tell us any time you hear it?" He had a voice in his brain. As long as he was in control of himself otherwise, Pete didn't see much need for concern. "On that note.. The fuck were you thinking? Making Josh kiss Patrick??"

Max grinned sheepishly. "Well, Compulsion is supposed to make people do things they wouldn't have done without it. So obviously Josh wouldn't usually be kissing Patrick or whatever." He shrugged. "I just wanted to see if it worked. Didn't mean to make him kiss your boyfriend." He teased.

"I'd say he's not my boyfriend, but," Pete just shrugged. "Actions certainly speak louder than words."    
"What the fuck, Peter?" Mikey feigned hurt, bringing a hand up to his chest and gawking and everything. "I thought we had something, way to fucking lead a guy on."

"Uh oh, Dads are fighting." Max laughed, and Pete just frowned at him. "Alright, fine, I'll be serious." He sighed. "So, what was wrong with the Josh and Patrick thing? Isn't using Compulsion something you wanted me to do?"

"Yeah, and I don't blame you for not knowing about the Patrick and Blurry thing," Pete sighed. "But uh, maybe not do things that could seriously embarrass someone. Patrick's married, for instance."

Max gave another shrug. "Whatever. Now I know." He said nonchalantly, not really having seen the problem with it all. "So, what's next on the list of shit you wanna teach me?"

"Uh," Pete looked to Mikey. "If we're crash coursing the magic shit then I'll leave that decision up to you. Maybe we should wait until after our rehearsal though?" Honestly, Pete just hoped they could even make it through rehearsal without too much of a problem.

"Fine by me." Max said, grinning again. "After all, I'm also here to learn about tours." He would be up for learning about either vampire stuff or music stuff. Either is fine by him.

**::::**

Back with Josh and Tyler, Tyler's really trying not to worry. It wasn't working out too well, though, and Josh could tell he was antsy.   
"He's just in the other room," Josh said to him. "You could go check up on him."   
"No, no, I know he's okay," Tyler said, trying to shake it off. "He'll be fine. He needs to get ready for their rehearsal."

"We are gonna find a way to get Blurry where he belongs." Josh insisted, half to convince Tyler and half to convince himself. It wouldn't be good for Blurry to be stuck and fused with Patrick. People would notice a change in the singer and they would start asking questions. "Just gotta focus on fixing what we can. I'll fix us a sick drum beat." Josh grinned, trying his best to lighten the mood.

"Yeah," Tyler agreed, shaking his head again to try to refocus. He shook his hands out and turned to Josh. "Alright. Alright. I'm gonna go check on him, and then we'll start, okay? Finish warming up, I'll be right back."

Josh nodded. "Tell him I love him!" He called out with a grin before the blush returned to his face at remembering the kiss.

Tyler laughed a bit as he poked his head back around the corner. "I think maybe I'll skip that this time," he told him. "Unless he looks like he could use it." Tyler then went back towards heading to Fall Out Boy's practice area.

**::::**

When he got to the area, Tyler saw that they were setting up their instruments, and Pete was talking with Patrick, who looked rather uneasy.    
"You sure you can go through with rehearsal?" Pete asked, wanting to be sure.    
"Yes, fu-geez, I can handle it." Patrick answered with a frown.

"Hey," Tyler interrupted, and for a moment Patrick looked absolutely relieved to see him. "Uh, you guys okay? You can handle this?" Tyler knew he had just heard Patrick be adamant to Pete, but he wasn't really sure how this whole mixed personality thing works. If Blurry's still a bit separated, he might feel more comfortable with talking to Tyler than Pete about nerves.

"I-I can handle this." Patrick assured them as he nodded to himself, but his gaze lingered on Tyler for a moment with a look that could only be described as helpless. He shook his head and tried to focus on the topic at hand. "I can handle singing." He clarified. Handling the situation? He might have been freaking out a bit. But hopefully music would help, right?

Tyler moved forward to rest a hand on Patrick's shoulder. "We will get through this," he told him, and Patrick just went in for a hug, wrapping his arms around Tyler's waist and sighing.    
"Yeah..." Patrick whispered.

Tyler moved a hand to his back and rubbed it gently to get him to try to calm down. It took a few minutes before Patrick finally released him and took a step away, then took a deep breath as he looked to Pete. "Alright. I'm good now." He said with a small smile, Tyler having given him a bit of a boost that he needed.

"Okay. You know where Josh and I are if you need us," Tyler told him. "And Josh said, quote, 'Tell him I love him!'" He repeated it just as he had said it, intonation pretty much the same.

Patrick's face got a bit red but he still managed a smile. "Love him too." He said before waving at Tyler and going to focus back on the rehearsals. He could do it. He knew it. It wouldn't be that difficult. Just like any other rehearsal.

**::::**

They took their time and got set up, warmed up, and Pete put his arm around Patrick, pick in hand. "Ready to practice saving rock and roll?"

"As ready as I can be considering the situation." Patrick answered, managing a bit of a smile as he leaned into Pete's touch for a moment. He refocused and stood back up straight and he gave the cue for them to go ahead and start.

And it was going well. Really well. Patrick's intonation was a bit different than normal, but that was kind of expected. He also moved around more, but again that didn't really surprise anyone. But they came to Save Rock and Roll and that was when he faltered. Too many memories, Patrick's, being possessed, Blurry's, almost dying, he felt his heart rate pick up. "I've cried tears you'll never see," he managed. "So-" he stopped, the guys still playing. He backed away from the mic, shaking his head. "I can't, Pete, I can't. I can't fuckin' do it."

Pete set his bass down and hurried over to Patrick's side. "What's up, man?" He asked as Joe came over to join them too.    
"You were doing pretty good there. Wanna give it another shot or just take a break?" Joe cut in as Pete started rubbing Patrick's back.

"I don't- I don't know. It's like, shit, the swearing and the whole topic and all that, I just-"    
"You freeze," Pete finished for Patrick. "That's the Blurry, I'm guessing. I know Josh and Tyler don't swear. You wanna skip over the song?" They could do that. Skip it for now. But Patrick didn't really seem to be calming down, especially as memories surfaced that he didn't know how to deal with.

"I'll go grab you a drink." Joe offered, setting his guitar down and going to find a bottle of water with all their things.    
Andy popped out from behind the drum set. "I'll keep trying to find a way to fix this." He said, taking out his phone and searching away.    
"Don't think you're gonna find an answer on Google, dude." Pete said with a frown as Patrick leaned against him again.

"I can try," Andy retorted. "You'd be surprised how much bullshit has some truth to it."    
Patrick turned and hugged Pete tight, wings coming out to wrap around him. "I- I'm so fuckin' scared," Patrick half-whispered, voice breaking. "I lived through that, the Mephisto shit, but the memories feel new.."

Pete ignored Andy for now and put his focus on Patrick. "It's all over, Trick. He isn't coming back." He assured him, trying his best to hug him back despite being engulfed in wings. "We got rid of him, and that tattoo makes it so you won't get hurt again."

"But he's a demon," Patrick frowned against Pete's shoulder. "Brendon- Brendon's a fucking demon, and I can see him trying to- Pete I can feel and see him trying to kill me like he almost.." Patrick sighed and tried to relax, but his heart was pounding. "Like he almost did."

"Brendon's not going to lay a finger on you." Pete assured him. "Whether you're Patrick or Blurry, I'm not gonna let Mephisto or Brendon or who the fuck ever hurt you." He said, giving him a tight squeeze. "We're still best friends despite all this crazy shit going on, and we're gonna fix this."

Patrick stayed quiet for a few minutes, taking long slow breaths to try to calm himself down as he buried himself in Pete's embrace; a coping mechanism that was particularly Blurry's. He didn't move for a while, but his wings would fluff up every now and again almost like they were shivering.   
"....thanks, Pete," Patrick managed to squeak out, a tiny smirk playing at his lips shoved up against the vampire's shoulder.

Pete couldn't help but laugh, giving him a tighter squeeze. "Any time, buddy."   
"Knock knock." They heard Joe say as he pretended to knock against Patrick's wings. "Got a bottle of water delivery."

Patrick opened up his clamshell, finally releasing Pete and accepting the water, hugging Joe quickly. "Uh, thanks. Sorry," he apologized. Wasting rehearsal time. He redirected his attention to Andy as he unscrewed the bottle cap. "Any, uh, any news?"

"Maybe." Andy said, scrolling around on his phone. "Mind if we take five? I gotta talk to Dallon and Brendon for a minute."   
Patrick shivered at the mention of Brendon's name.    
"Find something?" Joe asked curiously.    
"Not sure how legit it is, but maybe." Andy said again. "I would have to get some things together first though."

"I'll be here," Patrick decided as he went to lay down on the rug on the floor in front of Andy's drumset. "I'll be here. Drinking water and not freaking out again."    
"Want me to stay with you?" Pete asked, but Patrick shook his head.    
"I'd like to try and let my brain figure itself out for now."

"Alright. I'll be right over there with Joe if you need me." Pete tells him, motioning over back towards their guitars. The two head over and start retuning their instruments and making sure everything is all set up for when they get back to playing as Andy went off to find Panic!'s rehearsal room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there's roughly six chapters left, and we'll update as often as we can <3  
> thanks for waiting around guys, i swear you're gonna love it!


	14. Chapter 14

As Andy entered their room, Brendon looked over and signaled the guys to stop playing, then headed over to Andy, Dallon close behind.    
"You fill Dan in yet?" Andy asked quietly, glancing over to the drummer. "Or should I steal you two for a few minutes?"

"He, uh, no." Dallon admitted. "Still working up to it." If Kenny knows, then Dan has to know too. It's just a matter of finding the right time to tell him.   


"We'll be right back guys." Brendon told Kenny and Dan. They got a confused look from the drummer but a thumbs up from the guitarist.    


"Take your time, we'll be here." Kenny said.

"If you wanna be a blabber mouth to Dan go ahead," Brendon said as he peeked back into the room, Dallon quickly pulling him away from the door as Dan looked to Kenny.    


"A blabber mouth about what?"

"Oh, the fact that Brendon is a demon and Dallon is an angel." Kenny answered nonchalantly, giving a shrug as he played around with his guitar. "I've known about Brendon for a little while now, but Dallon not even an hour ago."

"You're pullin' my leg," Dan laughed, but Kenny didn't. "You- you can't be serious. Demons and angels? Bullshit. What is it, like a secret party for someone? What's the big secret?"

"It's not bullshit, dude." Kenny insisted. "Back when Brendon first told us, he possessed Spencer to prove it. Better make sure it isn't some kind of screwed up drummer initiation thing." Kenny laughed.

"Wait.. Seriously?" Dan did a little drum beat before setting the sticks aside. "You're not bullshitting me?" He frowned. Thought about it. Then grimaced some more. "I won't believe it unless I get met with cold hard proof. No fuckin' way demons and angels exist, man."

"Fine, don't take my word for it. Ask Bren when he gets back and let him possess you. That's fine." Kenny laughed and shrugged. He'd been more used to the idea of Brendon being a demon than Dallon being an angel. But looking back on it, it rather makes sense.

"Hey," Brendon greeted as they came back in, grinning.    


"Good news?" Kenny asked. He didn't know a ton about what was going on, but he knew it wasn't good, and he'd like Patrick back to normal, thanks.

"Andy says he has an idea and might need our help. He didn't say what it would be but asked if we would be willing to use our magic, so-"   


"Callin' bullshit!" Dan cut Dallon off with a frown. "There's no way any of this is true."

"Hm?" Dallon looked over to Dan, then smirked. Kenny must have tried to tell him. "You don't believe it? Magic?" Dallon asked with a flair of his hands, sending a few sparkles off into the air theatrically before looking to Brendon, the far more theatrical of the two.

Dan's brows furrowed but still he maintained an attitude of disbelief.    


"You sure you don't believe it?" Brendon asked, taking a step closer to the drummer. "I can show you firsthand." He grinned.

Dan frowned at him. "I've known you for years, dude. No way you're a fuckin' demon." Dan insisted.

"Well I mean, I guess seeing is believing or some shit." Brendon shrugged then placed a hand on Dan's shoulder. After a moment, they saw his form start to change to smoke, and Dallon sighed.    


"Is it really necessary?" He asked.    


"Hush, of course it is." Dan said once Brendon's form vanished. "Won't believe me otherwise."

"Bren, you could've done, I don't know, fire maybe? That's usually pretty believable. Or just changed your form?" Dallon rolled his eyes, but grinned a little anyway, used to Brendon's antics. All or nothing, as per the usual. Brendon seemed to get a feel for Dan's body for a few moments before going ahead and taking a few selfies with Dan's phone before pushing Dan back out from the background and going into Dan's mindspace.

"Wait whoa what just happened?" Dan asked as he looked around. "Where's Brendon?"   


"In your head probably." Kenny answered as Dan looked to his phone and saw selfies he didn't remember taking

"Shit, what the fuck?" Dan frowned as he looked through the pictures. "And Brendon's actually like..." Brendon regained control, grinning devilishly.    


"I'm actually like,  _ in  _ you, Dannyboy."

"Alright Brendon that's enough. We still have to get back to rehearsal." Dallon frowned, and Brendon frowned right back.    


"I think I should take over as drummer." He said somewhat seriously before laughing. "Fine, fine." And with that, they saw the smoke rematerialize beside Dan.

Dan took more than a few steps back from Brendon, staring at him as he saw his true form for a few brief moments before Brendon once again looked perfectly human. "Holy. Fuckin. Shit. You're a demon," he breathed out. Then looked at Dallon. "And you're..."

"I'm-"   


"The Winged Wonder!" Brendon answered for him as he jabbed his elbow against Dallon's side. "Show em off."   


Dallon rolled his eyes but did as asked, showing off his big fluffy wings.

"Whoa," was all Dan could manage, taken aback by how incredibly large Dallon's wings were. "Uhhh... And I'm just finding out about this now... Why?"

"Well, your reaction is reason enough." Brendon shrugged. "This shit ain't exactly common in case you couldn't tell."   


Dallon nodded in agreement. "I've barely told anyone about me." He admitted.

"Yeah but you went from 0 to 100 lately and it's awesome," Brendon grins at him, clapping him on the back. "Next thing you know you'll be showing off as much as I do!"    


"Anyway," Kenny frowned a bit. "Back to the point. What's the word from Andy? Both of your magic?"

"Yeah, he said something about the thing he found to fix Patrick needs both dark and white magic so where better to get it than from a demon and an angel?" Brendon grinned.    


"Fix Patrick?" Dan just kept frowning, feeling like he probably missed a lot here.

"Ohhh so you only told him about us," Brendon said to Kenny, nodding in realization. "Yeah, like, half of FOB isn't human either. And one third of the pilots."    


"There's only two," Dan said, confused.    


"Nah, Blurryface is real. He's accidentally mixed up in Patrick's body right now. Patrick's a featherfucker like Dally here," Brendon winked at his friend. "So magic shit happened and it's all fucked up. Tryna fix it."

"Um." Dan kept frowning, unsure what to make of it all. It wouldn't be unlike Brendon to lie about something like that. But then again, there was proof that he was a demon and Dallon was an angel. So maybe he could possibly be telling the truth. "Okay..."

"I can vouch for them," Kenny said, grabbing his guitar again. "But uh, lets finish rehearsal before doing anything." He suggested. 

::::::

  
"So I might have found something," Andy announced as he entered the rehearsal room again. Patrick was still laying on the floor, water bottle emptied, Pete laying next to him, just relaxing.

Patrick perked up a bit at hearing Andy say something.    


"What's up, magician man?" Joe asked him, curious about what kind of solution he could've come up with. "We gonna get things back to norm?"

"I hope so. I think so. I have to run out and get a few things, and we might need Pete to help out, and we need Dallon and Brendon's help too. But it could work." Andy said, looking back down at his phone.

"Well what is it?" Patrick asked, frowning. He wasn't too sure if he liked how cryptic he seemed to be about it.    


"It basically boils down to the fact that you're a white magic being, and Blurry is a dark magic being." Andy started to explain. "So if we give you more white magic, and Blurry dark magic, you might be able to have enough of a difference to separate from each other."   
"So how would I come into it?" Pete asked curiously.    
"You'd, um." Andy wavered for a minute, having a feeling Patrick wouldn't be so keen about it. Specifically the Blurry part of him. "Patrick needs to have pretty much no magic in him for this to work, I think."

"Well shit, I have to drink the dark magic blood?" Pete asked, running a hand through his hair in slight exasperation. That wasn't usually fun for him. Tasted fucking amazing, sure, but then his emotions always got all fucked up.    


"Drink my- drink my blood...?" Patrick asked quietly, as if it were a new concept to him.

"It's probably gonna be a really shitty experience for everyone." Andy admitted as he looked back to his phone. "But it's all I've got, and if we want Blurry back where he belongs, we just have to suffer through, I think." He sighed. "If I find something better I'll let you know, but as of now, this is our only option."

Patrick took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh. "Alright," he half whispered. "I.. I kinda wanna go back home," he admitted. "It's weird, cause it's not really home, but I know I'm all screwed up right now. I'm trying not to overthink it." He knew they decided to call him Patrick for the time being, but he knew that's not exactly who he was. It kind of was, his life with the band, with Elisa, that all feels right. But with Tyler and Josh and the mindspace, that's right too. And he missed that desperately.

"If we wanna put a pause on rehearsal I can probably find everything I need for the ritual by the end of the day." Andy explained, then looking to Joe. "Might need your help with that part too."   


"Always willing to help, dude." Joe answered with a grin before looking at Pete and Patrick. "You two gonna be alright for a few hours?"

"If it's okay with Pete, I'm gonna go sit in on Tyler and Josh's rehearsal," Patrick answered.    


"Both of us?" Pete asked, and Patrick nodded. "Yeah, I guess I'm cool with that. We'll go fill them in on it all." Pete stood and then helped Patrick up, and as everyone dispersed he kept an arm around Patrick's shoulder.

::::::

Patrick kept close to Pete as they walked over to Tyler and Josh's rehearsal room. "Does... Do you really have to drink my blood?" He asked Pete quietly as they walked. He'd done it plenty of times to him before. But suddenly now the idea of it sounded terrifying.

"Yeah.." Pete sighed, pausing outside the door. "I'll do it as gently and quickly as I can," he told him. "I know Blurry doesn't really like the whole darker side of magic and all that shit. It'll be scary but we both know the side of your neck is the least painful. No bone, just flesh and a nice big chunk of artery."

Patrick sighed again and nodded slowly. It still sounded extremely unappealing. If he had the choice, he'd want nothing to do with it.    
  


They opened up the door and Tyler looked over immediately. "Hey, something wrong?" He asked, his mind automatically jumping to the worst possible scenario.

"No," Patrick managed a smile upon seeing Tyler. "No, good news, hopefully. Andy's working on a fix."    


"We're breaking for a while so they can get it together. Blurry here wanted to come watch you guys." Pete smiled at them both. He knew it was the Blurry part of his friend that wanted to be here. Patrick would have probably just napped.

"It's not like he never watches us rehearse." Josh laughed a bit.    


Patrick rocked on his feet and looked down at the ground. "Well, I mean, I haven't really seen it." He said quietly. "I have but I haven't." Being able to tell the difference between what are his emotions versus Blurry's was still really difficult.

"Yeah, he's always been in my head for it," Tyler said, heading over to hug him, and Josh following close behind.    
When Tyler went to hug him, Patrick immediately clung to the taller singer for a minute before he released his grip on him. Josh opened his arms for a hug too, and Patrick wavered a moment, his face having been slightly flushed, before following suit and giving him a tight hug as well.

"We're almost done, wanna just sit over there and watch? Do we have time to start at the top?" Tyler asked, smiling a little. Blurry would get to actually watch them. Both of them. That, at least, was pretty cool.

"Andy and Joe said they'd be gone for a while, so I don't see why not." Pete shrugged as they went to grab some fold up chairs and watch the two restart their rehearsal. The vampire grabbed his phone to shoot a text to Brendon to let him know that Andy and Joe would be out for a while and if they wanted to come to the boys rehearsal room, they were welcome to.    
Patrick made himself comfy in the chair and managed a smile as he looked to Tyler and Josh.

Watching Tyler was so cool. Watching Josh was so cool. It wasn't often he got to see Josh actually drum during shows, since Tyler would be all over the place. And Josh's drumming style was crazy different than Andy's, and honestly it was no wonder they were on this tour with them now. They were really good, even just rehearsing.

 

After a couple songs, they heard the door open as the Panic boys filed into the room as well. Patrick cringed at the sight of Brendon and shifted closer to Pete, who put an arm around Patrick's shoulders as he greeted them.    


"So we're gonna get Blurry back where he belongs soon?" Brendon asked with a grin at Patrick.

"Yeah, we think so," Pete answered.    


"Hope so," Josh said from behind the drumset. "Miss your face," he smirked at them.    


"Hey, let's chat a little later? I'm trying to be important," Tyler said, grinning stupidly.

"You're always important, Tyler." Patrick laughed as he stayed close to Pete, and he tried to ignore the fact Brendon was in the room with them.    


"Aren't I important too?" Josh asked as he stuck his tongue out at him.    


"You're just as important." Patrick assured him.    


"Only just as?" Josh teased, an over exaggerated frown on his face.

"I don't think I'm allowed to play favorites here," Patrick laughed a little.    


"Hey, zip it, no flirting," Tyler frowned at Patrick, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips as they started the next song in their set.

Patrick's face had gone red and he stayed quiet to listen to their set.    



	15. Chapter 15

After the boys had finished their set, it was only a few minutes later that Dallon's phone started ringing.    
"It's Andy." He announced before he answered, leaving Pete confused as to why he hadn't called him. "Hello?"   


"Hey, um, reading into the ritual a bit more, I realize that the thing involving you and Brendon is a bit more complicated." Andy said on the other end.    


"Complicated?" Dallon asked, which earned some curious looks from the others.    


"Yeah. The person doing the ritual can be the only person using magic. Which means that your white magic and Brendon's dark magic has to be loaned to me."

"Uhh," Dallon looked to Brendon and motioned for him to leave the room with him, then held a finger up to let the rest of the guys know they'd be back. He put it on speaker once he and Brendon were outside the room. "Okay. How do you want to go about doing that exactly?"

"Well I mean, the process isn't too difficult." Andy said. "But it's probably gonna be totally fucking unpleasant for you guys."   


"How?" Brendon asked. As much as he wanted to help the situation, he wasn't about giving up something of his with nothing in return.    


"If you guys don't have magic, you're gonna feel weak as shit." Andy explained. "You regain it back after time of course, but for at least a few hours you guys will probably be out of commission." He admitted. "Maybe passed out, or maybe just weaker. Not entirely sure."

Brendon muttered a low "fuck," while Dallon just sighed.    
"We don't really have much of a choice I guess," Dallon said. "Um. Let us know when you want us, we'll head over. We're done rehearsing for a while."

"Joe and I just have to hit a couple more stores then we'll be back." Andy said. "Prepping the ritual will probably take a little while, but I'll need both of you there for that."   


"What if I don't want to?" Brendon frowned. "Can't you get Pete or Mikey or that other vampire and take their magic?"   


"Vampire dark magic is different than demon dark magic." Andy explained. "And besides, I think the ritual would work better with polar opposites, meaning angel magic and demon magic."

Dallon looked at Brendon and frowned directly at him. "You nearly killed the guy once, the least you can do is be tired for a few hours to show you care."    


"Dallon makes a point, dude," Joe's voice came over the receiver. "Don't be an asshole."

"Asshole is part of my nature, asshole." Brendon retorted with a huff.    


"It's not going to kill you." Dallon frowned at him. "If I'm willing to do it, it should be no problem for you."   


"Whatever. I'm too sober for this shit right now." Brendon waved his hand and went to go walk off back to their rehearsal room. 

"Where are you going?" Dallon called out after him. 

"To see if I can find something hard to drink. Or a joint. Or hey, maybe if I'm lucky I'll find both!" Brendon grinned and gave him a wave as he turned the corner. 

Dallon sighed and shook his head. "Just let us know when you need us. I'll make sure Brendon cooperates."

"I'll give you a ring," Andy said, and with that, they hung up. 

 

When Dallon walked back in to talk to everyone else, he was completely lost. 

"Wait so- really?" Pete asked. "Martian or something? What does Joe call them?" He directed to Patrick. 

"Symphonic?" Patrick said unsurely, and Pete nodded. 

"Yeah, that. You?" Pete asked, this time towards Josh.

"Me." Josh answered simply.    


"What'd I miss?" Dallon asked as he rejoined them.    


"Josh is an alien." Patrick said.    


"Oh. Alright then." Dallon studied Josh curiously. "Doesn't look too different though."

"I've noticed," Josh laughed, and Tyler went ahead and sat on the floor in front of Patrick, keeping close to his tulpa.    


"Maybe it's like a magic thing," Pete suggested. "Like my wings."    


"Aliens aren't magic, though," Dallon said, but Pete just shrugged.    


"Doesn't hurt to try?"

"Try?" Josh asked.    


"To try looking Symphonic!" Patrick told him, smiling.    


Josh hmmed and leaned back in his seat. "Suppose it's worth a shot." He said, and he closed his eyes to try and focus on what Joe had said the species looked like.

Nothing happened at first, but everyone was willing to give a quiet minute to let Josh concentrate. As he thought, the sounds he had heard in the closet came back to him, and he thought he felt something maybe kind of click and make sense, but he waited and kept focusing.   


"That's pretty sick," Patrick said, smiling and relatively in awe. "All striped and stuff. Looks like it might be working.”

"Reminds me of how Blurry looked when he was in you." Tyler commented as Josh opened his eyes.    
He looked at his arms and saw the stripes that Patrick talked about. He took out his phone and opened the camera to the selfie mode to see if he could find anything else different. The first thing he saw were the totally black eyes, which also reminded him of Blurry's influence.

"This is.. Uh, surreal," Josh said, laughing quietly to himself and checking different angles. It didn't feel real. Like it was some snapchat filter, not actually himself. It also took a moment to find that word, which was odd.

"Somehow alien is like on par with the stuff I'm learning today." Dan chimed in.    


"How're you handling it all?" Mikey couldn't help but ask. Being thrust into the magical world like that couldn't be all too easy for him to understand.    


"I'm trying." Dan admitted. "Still trying to wrap my head around it all."   


"You alright there, Jishwa? Missin' your home planet?" Tyler teased, bumping his shoulder with his. It was rather odd to see his best friend like this, but it also looked rather natural on him.

Josh laughed and bumped right back. "Nah," he said. "Don't.. Uh. Don't.. Remember it."    


"Honestly my mind is as blown as yours," Max said to Dan. "Like, I know I'm a vampire and all but dude, I didn't know half this shit was actually out there.

"Good to know I can sympathize with a vampire." Dan laughed.    


"Doing alright?" Tyler asked Josh curiously. He looked as if he was struggling with something.

"Feel fine," Josh said, but frowned. "Words. Kinda.. Hard. Getting." It was honestly pretty frightening. He could still understand what everyone was saying, mostly, but slowly it started to make less and less sense.

Tyler kept looking at him curiously. "Have to do with the alien thing? They speak a different language?" That was actually really interesting to him. That Josh knew English, and suddenly he's having difficulty with it. It did sort of seem like being an alien was magic of its own.

Josh took a moment to figure out what Tyler had asked, then nodded. "Yeah," he said, but he couldn't find the words for what more he wanted to say. He couldn't even really think in words, either.

"Is there a way to turn that off?" Tyler asked him. If he couldn't understand English at all anymore, or permanently looked like this, there might be a bit of a problem in their hands.

Josh frowned. He had no idea what Tyler just asked him. But he looked concerned, so Josh put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I'm fine," he said. But it didn't come from his mouth. He didn't even make an audible sound. He somehow sent it, with his touch to Tyler's arm.

Tyler's eyes widened in confusion, unsure of the sound that just went through his head. Was that Josh? Josh had touched him when it happened..   
"Everything okay?" Patrick asked, more than a little worried about the expression that Tyler had.

"I really hope so," Tyler said, albeit a bit unsurely. "I don't think he knows English right now though." This could be a problem. A serious one. They don't need another serious problem on their hands.    


"I'm fine," Josh insisted, sending it again through his touch. It wasn't English. It was sound. Various sounds, tones, almost like music, but it had meaning to Josh.

Tyler looked back at Josh, frowning. It seemed like he was trying to communicate, but it was obviously in some sort of alien language that made no sense to him. He took out his phone and wrote out a, "can u go back to english???" but as Josh looked at it, the drummer frowned too, not knowing at all what it said.   
"Lemme try." Pete grinned, taking out his own phone. He taps something out for a bit before showing it to Josh:  

Josh took Pete's phone and, after looking at it for a moment, went to tap something just below it.    
    


He closed his eyes again after handing Pete the phone back, having totally received the message and focusing on changing back.

"Fuck you Patrick for saying being emoji-centric with my texting gets me nowhere." Pete grinned and waved his phone at his friend.   


Patrick winced at hearing the swear from him but laughed nonetheless. "Alright, I suppose it has its uses."

It took a minute or so but as the guys kept talking, slowly it started to make sense to Josh again. He opened his eyes to see Tyler and gave him a thumbs up. "Get English," he managed to say to him with a smile. "Slow." It was such a strange thing, kind of indescribable, to actually be surrounded by a language you know and then all of a sudden it doesn't make sense any more. But he could reverse it, so that meant he could do it whenever he wanted. Which was sick.

"All better?" Tyler asked him, and Josh nodded, giving him a thumbs up.    


"Show Joe when he gets back. I'm sure he'll love it." Pete suggested, and Josh nodded again. Now there wa something about him to make him less normal. Oddly enough, it made enough sense. He felt natural like that.

"Way cool," Josh said. "When back?" He blinked a few times and the black surrounding his eyes faded, stripes fading along with it as he seemed to return to a fully human form.    


"Any minute now, I would think," Mikey said, checking his phone and then answering a text.

 

Soon enough, they heard a knock at the door as Andy popped his head in. "Gotta nab Dallon and Brendon." He said.    


Dallon sighed and got up to leave with Andy. "Brendon is probably back in our rehearsal room, so we'll have to swing by there." He said.

"He seems awfully bitter," Andy observed as the two of them walked the hall to Panic's room, Dan following behind a bit out of sheer curiosity.    


"He's a demon," Dallon shrugged. "Helpful isn't always at the top of his to be list. You have to make it sound worth his while."

"I guess helping someone he almost killed isn't priority for him." Andy sighed as well as they turned to Panic!'s room to see Brendon sitting at the drum set, lit up as he played a few beats.    


"Come on, Brendon." Dallon ushered.    


Brendon sighed and looked to them, scowling. "I really have to?"

"Hey," Andy started quietly as he went over to the drumset. "Listen. We're pals, you know? Drummers, guys, you know. But you nearly fucking killed a living being, someone who's now pretty much our friend, and you know how I feel about that. So I would politely suggest that you fucking cooperate without complaint or I'm going to make sure this tour is a living hell for ya." Andy smiled innocently at him.

"I-" Brendon started but stopped himself before he went too far. Somehow he doubted telling Andy that he already killed a living being which is why he's like this would bode well for him. "Fine, whatever. It better not affect our show tomorrow though." Brendon finally gave in.

"If you behave, it won't," Andy assured him. He quite liked this Blurry character, from what he's seen. He wants to be sure he makes it back to Tyler in one piece. "Now come on, we have work to do."

Brendon sighed again and stomped out the joint behind Dan's drums, who frowned at him in response for that.    
"Really?"   


"Hope you enjoy your weed smelling drums for tomorrow." Brendon grinned at him before getting up to follow after them.

"Thanks," Dan said flatly, frowning at him.    


"So what do we have to do for you?" Dallon asked as they followed Andy back towards the Fall Out Boy rehearsal room where Joe was setting things up. "Do you want Pete to drain the black magic out of Patrick while we're doing it?"

"Actually, yeah that would be good, so Patrick has time to recover." Andy said, taking out his phone to text Pete. 

 

When Pete got the message, he frowned at Patrick. "Snack time." He told him, making the angel flinch. "I know. It sucks for me too."   


Max laughed at the unintentional pun. "What's so bad about it?" Max asked. "Do you want me to do it?"   


"You do not need more black magic in you, Maxwell." Mikey sighed.

"What? Why?" Max frowned.    


"You'll see," Pete said and took Patrick by his arm out of their seats, heading out to the hallway. "We still have those handcuffs, right? The vamp proof ones?"    


"Uh- yeah, in your Bass Case," Patrick nodded. He knew he had quite a bit of dark magic from all the times Pete didn't touch it. And Pete tended to get either sad or violent when he had too much in his system. Better to be safe than sorry.

"Want to just get this over with quickly?" Pete asked.    


Patrick wavered, looking down. "I know that you need to do it, and I'm usually totally fine with it and shit, but I'm just... Scared?" Patrick admitted, taking a shaky breath. Pete had done this tons of times before. Maybe it was the idea of him needing to drink so much that it would leave him with no magic of his own, or even the idea of the fact he was a goddamned vampire and he had to give his blood to him.

"I'll pump you so full of venom you won't feel a thing after like, 15 seconds, okay?" Pete assured him. "You'll be okay. I've never fucked up with you before." Pete was admittedly a little nervous about drinking so much dark magic, but he knew he could do it. He had done it before.

Patrick sighed again and closed his eyes. "Just-just do it quickly. Before I get scared." He said, tilting his head to the side so Pete could just drain him already. It was gonna be horrible, he knew, so they should just get it out of the way fast.

"Alright," Pete said, taking Patrick and holding him close, breathing the scent of his dark magic laden blood. So. Fucking. Good. He gave Patrick's neck a venom coated lick to numb the area at least a little more than he usually made it before biting down hard and quick.  Patrick winced and bit his lip to try to keep from yelling out. His wings instinctively went to wrap around Pete as he drank from him.  Internally, Patrick was freaking out a lot more than he was showing. The Blurry side was absolutely terrified, and his grip started to falter as he felt the numbness start to take over.  Pete kept his arms tight around Patrick, drinking every last drop of the dark stuff he could manage as he held the angel up, past the point of him nearly passing out. It tasted so good, so intoxicating, Pete barely gave a thought to the aftereffects that would come.  Patrick gave a weak groan as he was held up by Pete, not having much of a grip on his consciousness any more. As he inevitably ended up passing out, his wings had gone from black to just a plain gray color.  Surprisingly, it was easy for Pete to stop once the magic ran out. Patrick's blood on its own wasn't altogether spectacular, though it certainly wasn't bad. And Pete was way over full. He sealed the wound and shifted Patrick to carry him Bridal style over towards their own rehearsal space where Dallon and Brendon and Andy would be.

 

Pete placed Patrick down on a chair when he got into the room, and Brendon looked at him with a frown. "So we're really doing this?"   


"You're gonna be a hero Brendon." Andy said to him with a grin, which just earned a middle finger in his direction.    


"Fuck off, let's just get this done with." Brendon sighed.

"Just tell us what to do," Dallon said. "Do we need to do it one at a time?"    


"Actually, it has to be both of you simultaneously," Andy told him. "The sooner we get this over with the more time we all have to rest before the show tomorrow," he reminded them. Pete ran out to go get the rest of the guys, let them know it was all going down. He ended up running pretty quickly, the black magic starting to work its way through him. He popped his head into the room and waved them over to have them go to their rehearsal room, but he hung behind. 

"Aren't you coming along too?" Max asked him.    


Pete shook his head quickly. "The dark magic is unpredictable with me. I don't want to risk going savage or something."   


"Then we'll stay here with you." Mikey offered, and Max nodded in agreement.    


"Yeah, of course, we'll make sure you don't go crazy." Max grinned.

"You know we're serious about that," Mikey said, eyeing Max. "You remember how you were your first week? Demonic dark magic can bring that right back."    


"Or it can make you burst into tears," Pete managed a laugh.

Max nodded a bit more seriously this time. "Yeah, sure." He went to lead Pete to a chair to relax and hopefully take his mind off the blood lust or whatever might come.


	16. Chapter 16

When the others made it to the room, they saw Joe drawing out some symbols in chalk on the ground, and a few plants and herbs that neither Josh nor Tyler could identify sitting around. Definitely seemed different than the kind of instant magic that Dallon and Brendon would use.   
Speaking of, Andy seemed to be talking to the two of them, and Brendon still looked less than thrilled about the whole situation as he looked over at the still unconscious Patrick. "Just do what you have to." Brendon ushered Andy, trying to get him to hurry up already.

"Trust me, I will," Andy told him. "First things first, I need your magic."    
"Circle's all set!" Joe called out to him. "Wanna get Patrick in the middle or is that second?"

"Get him there now, he should be waking up soon. He needs to be awake." Andy said to Joe before redirecting his attention back to the angel and demon.    
"And how do we give you our magic?" Brendon asked.    
Andy grabbed a cup of something off the table for himself.    
"What is that?" Brendon asked.    
"Smells like-" Dallon started.    
"Shit." Brendon answered for him.    
"If you two were to give me your magic as is, my little fragile human body would probably cease to exist." Andy said. "So it's a mixture of a bunch of non-human dna so I can seem less human while I do this." He continued. "Stuff from werewolves, vampires, fae, whatever I could find. And mixed that with some different herbs and shit and tadah."   
"Impressive," Dallon remarked. "Just say the word and we'll shoot you up with everything we've got." Dallon was willing to give him his all if that's what it took to fix Patrick and Blurry. Brendon however, well, he'd do it, but begrudgingly.

Andy looked back over to Patrick and saw him start to regain consciousness, based on the groans that came from him. "Okay, we gotta do this fast before his body starts regenerating its own magic." He told them, downing the foul smelling and tasting drink before reaching out to grab their arms.    
"Is it going to be safe for Blurry?" Josh couldn't help but ask. The last time they had a problem involving Blurry, he almost vanished. Josh didn't want that to happen again.    
"He'll be fine." Joe assured him with a grin. "Maybe better than fine for a little bit. It'll be totally good, trust me."   
Josh and Tyler exchanged confused looks at Joe's words. Joe had always been kind of odd, so it was probably just him phrasing it strange.

**::::**

Dallon looked to Brendon and nodded, signaling that they should start sending over their magic. It was a draining process, more than they thought it would be, and Andy seemed to even be sapping it from them more quickly than they could send it.

Andy kept taking in their magic as Patrick finally sat up, trying to stand up but his limbs were still a bit too weak to handle that. At seeing his wings, Patrick became rather alarmed at seeing them being gray, but figured it was part of the process.    
After a bit, Dallon and Brendon felt noticeably weaker and simultaneously ended up collapsing into the chairs behind them as Andy was filled with their magic.    
"Gotta be quick.." Andy mumbled to himself as he headed over towards Patrick. 

Andy reached a hand out to Patrick, who took it, and then the other hand, but nearly jerked back as Andy sent the magic to him, one type through either hand. White for Patrick, Dark for Blurry. An overload would cause their consciousness to split, which of course was the goal. It might take a little bit for each of their nuances to make their way back to the right person, but it would work. Andy was sure of it.

Patrick winced as the magic filled him, way too much of each kind. One of his wings turned black, the other white, gradually as he was filled with the magic. Andy kept filling him with as much magic as he could push into him until he ran out, leaving himself and Patrick both breathing hard.    
"Is anything happening?" Tyler asked, frowning as it seemed that nothing had worked. Maybe finding a solution that quickly was too good to be true.    
But suddenly right beside Patrick, a form appeared, and Patrick's wings returned to just their original pure white.

It took a few moments, but the form went from being awkwardly shapeless to looking.. An awful lot like Tyler. Except his neck and hands were black, and when he opened his eyes, a striking red peered around the room in fear and disbelief.

"...Bl-Blurry?" Josh asked, taking a step towards him as Tyler followed.    
"Told you he'd be better than okay." Joe grinned as the two went over to what appeared to be the tulpa's side.

Blurry blinked a few times, almost pinching himself to see if this was real. But before he could, Tyler wrapped his arms around him, burying his face into his neck. "T-Ty?!" He immediately wrapped his arms right back around him. Hugging Tyler. He never thought he'd ever feel that.

Tyler squeezed him tight, keeping him close and refusing to let go of him. "Blurry." Tyler laughed a bit quietly but didn't loosen his grip at all.    
"He should be like that for a couple hours." Joe explained as he helped Andy and Patrick to their feet. "Until Brendon's magic runs its course through him, then he should go right back into whoever's mind is closest."   
Josh just sort of stared in amazement at seeing the both of them there. He knew Blurry was real, of course he was, but seeing him in person, out of Tyler's mind like this, just made the reality of it fall on him again. That Blurryface really does exist and is right there hugging Tyler.

"I- I have a body," Blurry said quietly, still finding it hard to grasp. He buried himself in Tyler as much as he possibly could for just a minute or so longer before realizing- "Josh!" He suddenly opened his arms, Tyler loosening at least a little as Josh joined their hug. Blurry totally wasn't crying. Not at all. Nope. 

Patrick flexed his wings a bit after he stood, letting out a long sigh. "Feels good to just feel like me," he said. "I have way too much energy right now, so. Um, you guys rest. I'll go check on Pete."

Josh joined in on the hug, hugging both of them tightly as well. "You're okay?" He asked, looking him over before hugging him tightly again. "You smell different than Tyler." He commented quietly, noticing a distinct difference.

"Do- do I?" Blurry laughed a little as he finally let them go, looking himself over a little. His own body. At least for a little bit. "It's probably just all the magic and being in Patrick," he guessed. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, and sighed, relaxing and lowering his shoulders. The worst of it was over. He could be home again, things could go back to normal.

Tyler just went back to hugging Blurry tight, wanting to savor the fact that his counterpart is out like this.    
"Ty, please." Blurry laughed and hugged him back as he smiled at Josh.    
"No way. My little Bee is out and I'm not gonna let him ever go again." Tyler said, just squeezing him tighter.

"Your little Bee?" Blurry asked, smiling softly. Ty gave him a nickname. He nuzzled against him a bit before hugging him tighter. "Love you, TyTy," he said quietly.

"Love you too, Bee." Tyler answered, still hugging him tight. "So much. I'm so proud of you. You've been gone for what feels like forever, and now I'm just not gonna let you go."   
"No hugs for me?" Dallon asked, laughing quietly from where he sat. He felt weak as all heck, but if Blurry had his own body, there's no way he's missing out on that.

"No way," Tyler answered for Blurry. "Did you hear me? I'm not gonna let him go," he smirked at the angel and kissed Blurry's cheek before relenting, letting the Tulpa hug whomever he would so choose.

Blurry smiled at Tyler before he carefully made his way over to Dallon. This didn't feel real. His own body, his own legs. His own arms, wrapping tight around the tall angel. "Hi Dally." Blurry squeezed him tight, but kept an eye on Brendon who seemed like he was slowly coming to as well.

"Nice to meet you in the flesh," Dallon said quietly, hugging him as tight as he could manage.    
"Sorry you had to do all this to help me and Patrick out," Blurry said, frowning slightly. "I know it sucks for pretty much everyone else."

"We'll all recover." Dallon assured him. "Worth it to see you like this." He smiled, and Blurry smiled back as he gave him another tight squeeze. As soon as he let go though, he was almost tackled down by Josh, wanting to be able to hug him himself. Blurry's face flushed rather red but he definitely had no problems hugging Josh back just as tight as he was hugging Tyler.

“Joshie." Blurry smiled and rested his head on the alien's shoulder.

"Blurry," Josh nuzzled against him slightly, just squeezing him. "Gonna miss having you in my head," he admitted with a laugh, thankful that his position meant that Blurry couldn't see him blush.

"Once Tyty figures out that whole transferring to minds thing, I'll make sure to visit." Blurry assured him, just wanting to keep hugging him.    
"No he won't!" Tyler called out with a grin. "Never gonna let him leave my mind again."   
"Tyyyyy!" Blurry lifted his head off of Josh's shoulder to pout at his counterpart.

Tyler stared straightfaced at him for as long as he could manage before giving an over dramatic sigh. "Fiiiiine,  _ maybe  _ I can make an exception sometimes." He totally couldn't win against Blurry. He loved the Tulpa way too much, and was so overjoyed he was safe.

Blurry smiled again and unattached himself from Josh, just to grab his hand and pull him over to Tyler. He forced them both to sit down, and Blurry wedged himself between them, sitting between his two favorite people. He kept a tight hold on Josh's hand and leaned his head against Tyler. "Love you guys." Blurry told them quietly, nuzzling his face against Tyler's shoulder. "Thanks for not just leaving me in Patrick."

"Pfff, like we had another option," Tyler scoffed, turning his head to kiss Blurry's gently while he could feel it. "We love you so much. I love you so much."    
"What was it like..?" Josh asked curiously, tentatively.

Blurry frowned as he squeezed Josh's hand. "It was like I was Patrick, but I wasn't. I think his memories and everything were a bit stronger than mine, so I was kinda pushed to the side a bit. But it still felt like it was me." He sighed. "Like anything he was saying, it was me saying it too. It was weird." He shook his head quickly. "Don't want to do that again." Blurry said with certainty.

"We won't ever let it happen again," Tyler assured him. "Now that we know, we can avoid this stuff."    
"Blurster," Joe spoke up, catching the tulpa's attention and tossing him an orange juice. "Someone told me you really like this. Got it for you." Joe smiled at him, glad things were back to normal.

"Thanks, Joejoe!" Blurry smiled at him and took the juice box, sticking the straw in it and gladly drank it down.    
"You're so cute." Josh laughed at the sight, and Blurry sputtered some of his juice in surprise of Josh's comment, the red having made its way back to the tulpa's cheeks.    
"I-I'm-" Blurry laughed hesitantly as he looked down at the box, then shook his head quickly. "I just look like Ty."

"Eh," Josh sat back. "You don't though. I mean, you do. Tyler's cute. But you're way cuter," Josh couldn't help but blush a little at his own words. It came off so cheesy. "Your personality is so genuine."    
"You sayin' I'm not genuine, Jishwa?" Tyler frowned at him.

"Don't be mean to Ty." Blurry laughed, face still totally flushed red as he tried to redirect the conversation. For once, he could spend time out with Tyler and Josh. He didn't want to ruin this one time thing by arguing with Josh. "I really love you two." He said quietly, moving his head to rest on Josh's shoulder and going to hold Tyler's hand with his free one.

"We really love you, too," Josh said, resting his head against Blurry's. He sighed quietly and it wasn't until Dan spoke up that anyone dared to intrude on their time together.    
"Sorry, uh, felt kinda awkward. I don't wanna like, intrude on what time you've got. But thought I'd meet the star of the show here. I'm Dan," he held a hand out to greet Blurry properly. Honestly, he seemed nice. He could find out more about him later on tour, he was certain.

"O-oh." Blurry sat back up straight and released Josh and Tyler's hands to go ahead and shake Dan's hand. "Nice to meet you. Um." Blurry shrunk a bit closer to his faves. "I'm Blurry. Blurryface." He said quietly, not really liking to introduce himself as such.

"I've heard." Dan smiled at him. They were interrupted by a groan from behind Dan as Brendon finally woke up, blearily looking around.    
"Did it work...?" He asked.

At hearing Brendon, Blurry immediately released Dan's hand and withdrew back to clinging onto Tyler and Josh's hands tightly.    
"You did good, Brendon." Dallon smiled at him and motioned over to the pilot boys so he could see for himself.

Brendon sighed softly. "Good. Fuckin' first for me." He gave a weak head nod to Blurry, magic and energy totally spent. He didn't have the energy to be obstinate anymore, nor did he have the magic making his mood sour and turning him into a total pisser. He was just exhausted.

"Well, a second." Dallon pointed out. "Don't forget about when you gave Pete your blood."   
"How could I forget that?" Brendon sighed and rolled his eyes. "Why is it every time that I have to be good, it ends up shitty for me in the end?"   
"You could be good without the shitty," Kenny observed. "You just have to do good more often than you do," he laughed quietly and Brendon just flipped him off. But said nothing in protest. 

"Th-thank you, Brendon.." Blurry managed to squeak out, staying close between Josh and Tyler though. It was Brendon's magic that was flowing through him and making him able to have a body of his own after all.

"You're welcome, man," Brendon said back to Blurry, sighing and slinking back in his chair some more. "Cool to see you out."

"Mm.." Blurry nodded slightly. "It-it is pretty cool." He admitted, trying his best not to panic at having Brendon talk to him. Tyler and Josh were right there on either side of him. They would protect him if anything went wrong. He squeezed their hands and relaxed his head against Josh's shoulder. "It's l-like a once in a lifetime thing.."

Brendon frowned, then tilted his head at the three of them slightly. "No," he said simply, half of his lip curling up in a smirk. "How do you think demons exit their hosts? Their body doesn't stick around waiting for them."

Blurry looked at Brendon curiously, not entirely sure what he meant by that. There was a lot of things about demons he didn't know about, and frankly didn't care about. But if Brendon knew something about how maybe getting his own body like this again would be possible..

"I'm- well, not right now," Brendon laughed dryly. "But normally, I'm made almost entirely of dark magic. Part of possession is antipossession, like when I left Tyler and got my body back."    
"Given enough magic, Tyler, you could be able to do this for Blurry every so often," Dallon finished, impressed. That's an incredibly good idea.

"R-really?" Blurry asked, looking to Tyler, who shrugged in response.    
"I don't really have a lot of magic." Tyler pointed out. "But I'll totally do it if it means I get to have Bee out like this." He grinned and kissed the tulpa's cheek.    
"Ty.." Blurry laughed and rubbed at his cheek in embarrassment.

"We have at least the entirety of tour now," Josh pointed out, bumping shoulders with the tulpa. "Cause all the guys here know you."    
"Not all of us," Mikey announced as he, Max, and Patrick made their way back in, Pete gripping Patrick's hand tight, doing his best not to burst into tears. Again. Seeing Patrick be okay may have sent his heightened emotions over the edge already, and he was not about to leave his best friend's side any time soon.

Blurry shrunk back again at the new vampires walking in the room. The pain of the bite to Patrick's neck, to his neck, still had a vague sting on his own neck. Vampires weren't exactly his favorite, even if it was because of Pete that they could separate. "Thanks, Pete." Blurry managed to say to the over emotional vampire.

Pete managed a smile back at him. "Worth it," he said, gripping Patrick's hand tight. "Brendon, could you please take some of this fucking magic outta me?" He asked, pulling Patrick over to the demon. He hated being over emotional. He'd probably rather be savage.

"Me?" Brendon asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't want leftover Mephisto magic in me. Go give that shit to Blurry." He said, motioning to the Tulpa. A roundabout way of letting Blurry have more time out with his favorite people instead of admitting that he'd like to see Blurry out longer.

"Give it to Blurry?" Pete looked over to the Tulpa. "You want it?"    
"U-um-"    
"Yeah," Josh said for him. "He wants it." He moved to kiss Blurry's cheek, gripping his hand tight. "More time with you, win/win situation."    
Blurry blushed a bit at feeling Josh kiss his cheek and squeezed his hand back in return. 

"How much magic are we talking?" Tyler asked. "Like, Houdini level magic? Like another hour's worth of time? Or way more?" He wanted to see his Bee as long as he possibly could. Wanted to hug him, help him get used to being around people.

"Um." Pete gave it some thought and shrugged. "There's a lot of magic." He said, just wanting to get rid of it so he could feel normal again. Then he could get back to helping with training Max. But as of now, with all that extra magic and emotions, he wouldn't be able to do that.    
"If-if it's more time out, even if it's just an hour, I'll take it." Blurry piped up.

Pete held out his hand for Blurry to take, and Blurry let go of Tyler's hand to grip it. The magic was visible, dark purple seeming to pulse through Pete's arm and to Blurry's frame until Pete sighed and released. "So much better," he commented. "Never-" he looked to Patrick. "Let me drink that shit again."

"Well if you drank from normal people like a normal vampire you wouldn't have that problem." Mikey told him, laughing as Pete flipped him off.    
Blurry went right back to holding Tyler's hand, taking a deep breath. "I have my own body... At-at least for a little while.."

"Yep," Tyler smiled. "Whattaya wanna do with it?"    
"Be close." Blurry laughed as he snuggled against Tyler's shoulder. 

"We can do that!" Tyler said, wrapping an arm around Blurry's shoulder. "Quality time with my little Bee." He was so glad to have him back, safe and sound. He's only known about him for a little while, but he's family to Tyler. "Hey, maybe if we can do this sometimes, you could meet Jenna?" 

"J-Jenna?" Blurry was terrified at that idea. It was scary enough being out like this with so many people around, but telling Jenna? Tyler's wife? That he'd been living in his mind for years? And have that not be awkward or weird to her? Blurry shook his head quickly, not at all ready for Tyler to come clean to Jenna about him. "N-no way, Ty."

"I know it's scary, man, but. We'll see. Don't write it off yet, we can work up to it someday." Tyler rubbed his arm lovingly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just as a note, if u arent already shipping The Thing u should probably get on that ;')


	17. Chapter 17

"Oh! Joe!" Josh called to him as he suddenly remembered. "Got something to show you!"

"Sup?" Joe asked Josh as he stood up from cleaning up the chalk circle.

"Alien related," Josh grinned at Joe, focusing until he saw his stripes appear out of the corner of his eye.

"Holy shit, man!" Joe laughed. "You really are a Symphonic!" To think that one of his friends was one of those aliens that had abducted him in the past. "They'll love to hear that I know one of em next time they decide to visit."

"Yeah," Josh grinned. Second time around losing English, it was way easier to deal with than the first. For one thing, he expected it. And he knew he could switch back. For another, it really did feel natural. He glanced back, curious about Blurry's reaction without Patrick's influence.

Blurry looked over at seeing Josh change, and despite his efforts not to, he ended up blushing at the sight. Josh was really attractive like that. Like, seriously-  
"Want me to make them kiss again?" Max asked with a laugh, making Blurry's face grow more red. The Tulpa pushed his face against Tyler's shoulder in embarrassment as Mikey frowned at Max.   
"No way. And just so you aren't tempted, I've got some stuff to teach you anyway." Mikey cut in, and glanced over to Pete. "You're welcome to join in if you want to be a normal vampire."

"I'll come with. No promises. You'll be okay here, Patrick?" Pete asked, and Patrick nodded.   
"Yeah, I'll be taking care of Andy when he gets up and all."   
"Alright. Let's go," Pete ushered the guys out of the room, wanting to let everyone rest that wanted to rest and also prevent any more magical mishaps with Max.   


"Is it purely cosmetic?" Joe asked curiously after giving a wave to Pete.  
Josh shook his head, admittedly smiling a bit at seeing Blurry's reaction. He liked it too. That's good. He reached a hand out to Joe's arm and sent him a, "English is difficult right now". He wondered how much Symphonic Joe could understand.

"Holy shit! You speak it and everything!" Joe grinned. "Uhh," he seemed to be thinking a moment before touching Josh's shoulder. "Been while," he managed to send. "Know little." He'd always been curious as to whether or not humans could speak it or if it was just a modification his abductor friends had made to him.

Josh sighed a bit in relief at hearing Joe be able to speak it back to him. "I'll keep sentences short." He assured him, just glad that someone could understand him like this.   


"Missing," Joe sent, then frowned. "Missing things. You." He figured he wouldn't look exactly like the aliens who'd abducted him, but there're a lot of differences between them and Josh right now.

"What things?" Josh asked him curiously. He doubted he'd look exactly like the Symphonics that Joe knew. He doesn't seem to be full Symphonic anyway.

Joe frowned, then moved his hands up, sticking two fingers up at his forehead. Like- "oh," Josh tilted his head. "Don't know." Symphonics had antennae or horns or something? Maybe if Josh spent enough time like this something would happen?

Josh gave a shrug, figuring it would come to him eventually. Either the word or the actual thing that Joe was describing.   


Blurry looked back over to Josh, watching him and Joe curiously. They looked like they were getting along well. Bee wasn't jealous one bit. Nope.

"You okay, Bee?" Tyler asked, noting the slight grimace that had appeared on his face.

"Huh?" Blurry looked back at Tyler and shook his head quickly. "I'm fine!!!" He insisted quickly, not wanting Tyler to pry.

"If you say so, Bee. Just remember that trust, once gone, is hard to gain again." Tyler smirked at him, intentionally guilt tripping him maybe just a tiny bit, but kissing his cheek. He doesn't have to tell him anything. Blurry wears his heart on his sleeve.

"Wh-what?" Blurry frowned at Tyler. "I trust you. You trust me right? R-right?" Blurry looked down at his feet, trying not to over react. He knew Tyler was teasing him. But his mind was telling him that he wasn't. "I-I just-I want to hear Josh speak his language." He admitted quietly. He didn't want to interrupt the two of them though. They seemed to be having an important conversation. Or something.

"Of course I trust you, Bee," Tyler said. "Sorry. I didn't mean to worry you about that. I trust you completely." He gave his counterpart a gentle squeeze. "You will though. You'll hear it. Give him a minute. Seems like Joe can speak it."

Blurry nodded slightly, taking another breath. "It's-it's so strange, Ty.." Blurry said quietly, holding his free hand out and studying it. "It's my own body.. Out here. I can feel things with my own body, Ty..."

"Does it feel different than using mine?" Tyler asked curiously, studying Blurry's hand as he held it out as well. "Or is it just weird that I'm here next to you?"

"Both." Blurry admitted, still studying his hand, moving it curiously. "I can hug both you and Joshie at the same time, and-and I can actually _feel_ it.." Blurry still had a hard time processing the fact he could feel things on his own.

"Someday," Tyler said quietly, moving to intertwine their fingers together and holding Blurry's hand tight. "I want this to be the norm for you. Somehow." He looked up at Blurry and gave him a soft smile.

"I don't think that's really possible." Blurry said, laughing a bit again as he squeezed Tyler's hand in his own. "I'm not meant to be on the outside like this." He brought their hands close to his chest and sighed again. "Having an abundance of dark magic like this isn't going to be a common thing."

"Never say never," Tyler admonished him. "I'll find a way. Even if it's years from now. You're alive, you're here with us," he sighed and rested his head against his shoulder. "You deserve it."

"I don't, but thanks." Blurry smiled and rested his head against Tyler's, only to be startled by Josh flopping down beside him with a grin. After Bee got over the initial shock of being startled, he smiled at Josh. "Like being an alien?" He asked him.

Josh had no idea what Blurry asked him, but just being near him and hearing his voice was pleasant. It made him feel good, and it took him a few moments to realize that there was a purring sound, and that he was making it.

Blurry couldn't help but to start laughing at hearing the purring coming from him.   
"It's like you're a cat or something." Tyler commented, but remembering that English wasn't really a thing Josh knew right now, he took after Pete and took out his phone to find some emojis to convey his message. After a moment he shows to him: 

Blurry nabbed Tyler's phone from him and started typing out his own message to show him:  Blurry tried his best to ask if being an alien like this made Josh happy, but using a phone is still a pretty new concept to him.

Josh smiled and laughed a little at Tyler's comment. He went to type something back for Blurry but decided against it, instead taking his hand and sending him, "I love it."

Blurry smiled again as he listened to Josh speak his language. "It's pretty." He said before going to tap out a translation for Josh to read, not letting go of his hand though. It took him a minute to come up with:    


Josh purred softly as he stayed close to Blurry. "You're prettier," he sent him. "I'll talk to you like this as much as you want me to." He loves to see Blurry smile like that, and knows that being able to feel is such a big deal for him.

Blurry had no idea what he said, but it sounded really pretty. The Tulpa decided then that he wants to at least be able to understand it, if not speak it. It sounded like music. He squeezed Josh's hand to try and get him to keep talking, to say anything to him, so he can try to understand.

"More?" Josh asked, grinning. He wondered what to say for a moment. "I'm glad you're safe," he decided on. Then, "Blurryface."

Blurry tilted his head in confusion. He understood part of that. His name, maybe? He looks back to the phone and shows Josh a , trying to get him to repeat it.    
Tyler smiled at seeing the two of them close and chatting like this. Honestly, Tyler could tell Blurry was totally crushing on Josh. He'd leave it up to the timid Tulpa to come to that conclusion himself though.

Josh nodded. "Blurryface?" He repeated. "Our Blurryface." Josh continued to purr softly, and then was taken aback a bit by a whole load of sounds he was suddenly hearing. They didn't mean anything to him, but they felt a certain way. Like emotions maybe??

What Josh then heard was surprise, coming from Blurry. And Tyler. And pretty much everyone who was looking at him.    
"Joshie, look." Blurry turned the phone's camera to selfie mode and held it out to Josh, showing him the two antennae sticking up from his head.

Josh tilted his head and- whoa- the antennae followed with him. Not a snapchat filter or anything, like, actual antennae on his head. They didn't look bad, if he had to be honest. He saw one flick slightly and then heard Joe say something, but mostly Josh heard his surprise and his delight.    
"Those! I was wondering where those were!" Joe grinned.

"They're normal?" Tyler asked him.    
Joe nodded. "Every Symphonic I saw had those."   
"What do they do?" Blurry asked as he reached to touch one of them, totally curious.

Joe shrugged. "Dunno. Never asked."    
As soon as Blurry touched his antenna, Josh was assaulted with swirls of sound coming directly from the Tulpa. He could identify it all, too. Anxiety, a little fear, a lot of relief, his curiosity, and a whole lotta love and caring. Josh kept still, purring quietly as he listened to Blurry's emotions. He even leaned into his touch slightly.

Seeing that Josh seemed to like it, Blurry continued to pet his antennae with a smile, using a hand for each one. They looked cute on him. Josh was cute. The stripes and the eyes and the antennae on him was just so adorable and looked totally natural on him.

Josh let Bee pet him, keeping his purr quiet so he could talk with everyone else if he wanted to. "Sounds wonderful," Josh sent him. "You sound so pretty, Blurry."

Blurry still couldn't understand anything but his name. He made a reminder to himself to ask Josh what he had said, after he came back to being a human. He loved hearing Josh's language though. Everything about it sounded beautiful.

Josh sighed after a minute or two, relaxed from the soft hum of Blurry's calmer emotions. "Want me to change back?" He asked, then tapped out the same message on his phone: 

Blurry thought about how his tones went, trying to place them with what Josh translated it as so he could do his best to remember it for future reference. He nodded after trying to remember the tones, having a feeling he would need to remember how that goes if Josh aliens out again.

Josh tilted his head slightly as he watched Blurry focus for a moment.    
Josh:    
He'd be more than happy to help Blurry learn it if he wants to, it would be awesome if he'd even be able to. He's pretty sure it was complicated.

The Tulpa smiled and nodded, wanting to hear it again. Blurry really wanted to learn Symphonic. Half because it sounded pretty, half because it was important to Josh.

"Want me to change back?" Josh repeated, slower, spacing out each 'word' so Blurry could hear it and keeping it simple. The grammar was a little different from English, but Blurry was smart.

Blurry pointed to Josh's phone again to get him to repeat it, trying to hang on and listen to each little sound. He had no idea how to replicate the sounds, but he thought he could at least start to understand them. That would be the first step to learning another language anyway, right?

Josh repeated it as many times as Blurry asked, then had an idea. "Want to try something," he sent him. He tapped out  and sent him "yes," then tapped  and sent him "no." He repeated himself a few times until Blurry could point to the right one each time, then he asked the question again and tapped 

Blurry frowned and tried giving it some thought. How was he supposed to speak something that he couldn't actually speak? He could understand the difference between the two easily enough, but actually speaking it seemed like it would be a long time coming. He closed his eyes and tried to hum the tones, doing his best to imitate. He had no idea how to send it to Josh, so that was the first method that came to mind.    
Tyler watched them thinking they were absolutely adorable. Blurry seemed to be taking a huge interest in the Symphonic culture, at least the language portion, and Tyler was happy for him.

Josh laughed and smiled, eyes squinting slightly. It sounded terrible, but it was recognizable enough. Like listening to a two year old. Josh closed his eyes and started focusing on reversing the process so he could talk to Blurry again.

Blurry kept on trying, wanting to get at least one word down. Does he think it? It seems more than just thinking it, or else he would've said it by now. The Tulpa squeezed Josh's hand, still trying his best to send him a "yes".

Josh had confidence that Blurry could figure it out, if he's even capable of speaking Symphonic. He was just starting to understand English a little again when he heard it, a very soft and unsure "yes" in crystal clear Symphonic, in a voice that certainly wasn't his own.

Blurry wasn't aware of his own accomplishment, and he just kept trying to send it, wanting so badly to do it right. His eyes were squeezed shut as he kept a tight grasp on Josh's hand and kept continuing.    
Tyler was just full of smiles, seeing Blurry out like this and being so active, even if it was just with Josh. It's a start.

"Good," Josh said, giving Blurry's hand a squeeze. "Did good. Heard." He wasn't sure how to communicate that he got it properly, but he'd figure it out.

"Y-yeah?" Blurry asked, opening his eyes again and looking to their hands. "I did it..?" Blurry was totally amazed. How did he do it? Could he do it again? He squeezed Josh's hand and tried saying "no" this time, hoping it wasn't just a fluke.

Josh smiled a little wider, giving Blurry's hand a squeeze in return. "Got it!" He sent him, then vocalized it. That was so cool, maybe Blurry really could learn to speak Symphonic? That would be so amazing for Josh.

Blurry smiled wider and laughed, releasing Josh's hand just to go and hug him tightly, sending him another "yes", because that was about as close as he could get to expressing his happiness for the situation.

Josh hugged Blurry tightly back as he came back to the Human side of his genetics, antennae disappearing. "That's so cool, Blurry," he laughed.

"What were those for?" Blurry asked, motioning to the top of his head where nothing sat any longer. "They looked really neat." He smiled, still hugging him tightly with a big grin. Blurry liked being able to hug Josh.

“I could hear your emotions.” Josh said. “I could hear your excitement of being out like this, your love for Tyler, everything.” Josh smiled. Honestly, he thought it was super neat.

"E-everything?" Blurry asked hesitantly, bringing his hands back to himself. "Sorry... You-I don't-um..." Blurry stumbled over his words. "I don't have good emotions.."

Josh frowned. "No, yours sounded so pretty," Josh told him. "I said that in Symphonic at one point. That you sound so pretty, Blurry." The undertones of his depression, his anxiety, though not particularly happy sounding at all, still sounded so beautiful, especially underneath all of the good stuff on top.

Blurry shook his head quickly, not quite believing it. His emotions are always bad and he wouldn't even wish for Brendon to feel them. "Sorry." He repeated again, and leaned a bit against Tyler, taking a deep breath to try and calm down. At least he knew for future reference to not touch the antennae.

Josh gave a small sigh but didn't want to press the matter. His shoulders fell a little as he looked away, mood sinking. The last thing he wanted to do was make Blurry upset. "Um.. Let's just.. How about we go eat, and then go hit the hay..?"

"Don't wanna sleep." Blurry frowned, shaking his head. He finally had time out, and he didn't want to waste it by just sleeping through it. He wanted prime cuddle times with both Tyler and Josh. He reached out to grab Josh's hand again, pulling him closer to him so he and Tyler made a Blurry Sandwich™.

Josh of course gladly accepted being part of the Sandwich™, resting his head on his shoulder. "Sorry," he said quietly. "I- I didn't mean to pry into your emotions." He sighed softly. "They really do sound pretty though."

"They aren't." Blurry insisted with a frown, moving to wrap an arm around Josh and his other around Tyler. He tried to will himself to calm down. He's here with his two favorite people and he was able to feel both of their hugs at the same time with his own body. There's no way he would let a bad mood ruin this. He hugged them tightly, never wanting to let go of them.

"Don't worry," Josh said, kissing his cheek. "I'll prove it to you someday."    



	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a quick note!!!!
> 
> the previous chapter didn't quite post properly (who knew ao3 doesnt like emojis???) so make sure you go back and reread it because the whole chapter has been posted correctly now  
> sorry for the inconvenience it was totally my fault rip

"You want him to  _ what? _ " Pete asked with a frown, directed towards Mikey, who was frowning right back.    
"I want him to try on a real person," Mikey repeated. "He's getting thirsty, Peter, too thirsty and he won't be able to resist the.. That voice. His instinct."

Max shifted his weight to his other foot as he watched the two of them argue about what to do with him. He wasn't sure what was best for him, but what he did know is that he was getting really thirsty, and if they didn't come up with some sort of answer he might lose it.    
"He's not going to learn unless he tries." Mikey insisted to Pete.

Pete did his best to stare Mikey down, but there was no winning against the cold stillness Mikey was able to attain. "Fine," he said finally, exasperated. "Fine, but if he fucks up and kills someone I want  _ literally  _ nothing to do with it."

"Wouldn't expect you to have anything to do with it." Mikey frowned at him before turning to Max and whispering to him, "you're lucky you've got me here". He stood back up straight and looked around a bit. "The easiest places for a quick bite is to hang around bars." He told Max. "If you have more time, it's always fun to play with your food first."

Max took a moment to think it over. "Bar yes, play no. I don't wanna get carried away and fuck it up."    
Mikey nodded. That was fair. "Alright. Let's find you something."    
"I thought you were sober?" Pete asked him, walking with them, and Mikey nodded.    
"I grab them on their way in these days if I need something fast."

Pete honestly still wasn't thrilled about having his student learn how to drink from a human. The best way to make sure you wouldn't kill anyone is by not drinking from them in the first place.    
Nonetheless, they ended up finding a bar that was rather busy, people coming in and out in both pairs and groups and some by themselves.   
"It's easier to grab someone who's alone." Mikey told him.

"Right," Max nodded. So many humans, it was tantalizing. His mouth would have been watering if he weren't so parched. It was easy to tell who was alone though. Alone and vulnerable. They had the dullest auras- the kind of people who went just to drink, not to have fun. "Should I just go for it?" Max looked to his mentor.

"No, or else you'll end up with a dead person." Mikey laughed a bit. "Haven't even taught you anything yet." He mentioned. "So remember the Compulsion I showed you how to use?" Mikey asked. After getting a nod from the younger vampire, he continued. "Use that to lure in your victim. That's the easy part. The hard part is first, holding back your venom, and second, knowing when to stop." He started to explain. "It mostly has to do with mental ability, to keep reminding yourself of it until it just becomes second nature to you."

Max nodded, absorbing the information. Holding back the venom didn't sound super hard off hand. It was stopping he was more worried about. "How do- how do you hold back the venom?" He asked. He knew how to stop. Forcing himself to? That'd be the kicker.

"When you first bite down, your natural reaction is to shoot venom through as well. It would make it less painful for them, but if you do that, then you'll end up turning them, which is not good. Rather have them hurt for a few minutes than totally change their lives, yknow?" Mikey explained. "It's about fighting your instincts. It'll be hard since yours have a voice, but you have to find a way to tune it out."

"Shit, alright. I think I can do this," Max said optimistically. "Now that I know what that voice is, too, that helps. Anything else dad?" Max grinned at Mikey, and then at Pete. He might have been a bit impatient. He was thirsty.

"Just keep drilling it into your head until it's the only thing you think about." Mikey told him again, making sure he knew that. He didn't want him to screw up and end up leaving a bad impression on Pete. It would be hard to convince Pete to let Max try again if he screwed up. "Go ahead. We'll be right here."

Max took a deep and completely unnecessary breath, letting it out slowly as he mentally repeated what he was told over and over again until he felt prepared. He looked over to them, got a nod from Pete, and turned, spotting a pathetic and helpless looking guy just drunk and smoking outside the bar. His aura was dull and blue grey and Max knew he wasn't waiting on anyone. Not today. Perfect.

As Max approached him, he already began to hear the voice. Grab him. Drain him. Leave him for dead in the alley. No one would miss him. It took a lot more effort than it should have to shove the voice aside, and by the time he did, he found himself standing in front of the guy without a particular game plan. Just roll with it, he told himself. Max let his voice drip with the magic for Compulsion as he finally spoke, "Excuse me, I really hate to bother you, but I think you dropped something over there." He said, motioning off to around the corner of the bar to the alleyway.

"Hmn?" The guy looked up, but his eyes quickly glassed over as he nodded. "Uh, yeah, I bet I did." He moved to head around the corner, seemingly scanning the ground for whatever lost item it could be.

Max went to follow after him quickly, still thinking about Mikey's instruction. No venom, just bite and go.    
Once the guy was far enough away from the bar and other people, Max reached out to grab his shoulders, and brought him down to bite right into the side of his neck.

The man made a small gasp but didn't put up a fight, didn't protest, Max's Compulsion keeping him pliable as Max made an effort to not shoot him up with his venom. He was fairly sure he succeeded, but the second part was the harder part.    
"Keep drinking," the voice would say, loud and clear. "Drain him."    
He tasted so damn good. His BAC was up, Max could taste it, but he was too thirsty to really care. Not like he didn't like to drink anyway.

Max kept drinking. And drinking. The only reason he had stopped was because he felt a hand on his shoulder trying to pry him away from his victim.    
"Maxwell, Max, that's enough." He heard Mikey say, but he didn't want to stop. He was thirsty. "Max." He said with more force, and at being ignored again, Mikey had to forcibly pull Max off of the guy so he wouldn't end up draining him dry. Max's instinct was to snap at Mikey, and he ended up biting his hand, but Mikey just frowned at him until he started to come to his senses and release him.

Mikey stood between Max and the man, sighing softly as Max realized what had happened.    
"Fuck," Max breathed out. "I almost fucked up."    
"He's still alive," Pete confirmed, checking the man's pulse. "He'll be fine, just a little anemic."

"We'll just try again. It's why we're here." Mikey assured him.    
"No way." Pete said adamantly. "He was close enough to killing him this time, what happens if he can't stop and still ends up killing? It's just safer for him to use the donations."

"No," Max said, suddenly feeling desperate. "No, Pete, I've got to. I've got to do this."    
"No, you don't-"    
"Yes, god, yes I do. I need to learn how to stop- I need to learn how not to kill people because- Fuck, Pete, what if I run out of donations? What if I'm in a bad situation? I need to be able to stop.”

Pete kept staring him down, not changing his stance on it. Max had a point. But Pete wouldn't budge.    
"Come on." Mikey frowned at Pete and pulled at Max's arm to get him to follow. "We're gonna keep trying until you get it right."

Max nodded, following after Mikey, and Pete tried his best to be stubborn about it but ended up  following after them as well.    
"We're gonna find another bar, maybe now that you're less thirsty it'll go better," Mikey suggested. "You can do it, Maxwell, you just have to focus on it. You can't let your instincts consume you. You're not a mindless predator."    
Pete paused at that, Mikey's words striking him slightly. Mikey was always the first to admit to being a predator, to call the people he drank from his victims or his prey. He'd never really seen this side of vampire Mikey.

At hearing Pete pause, Mikey looked back to him. "If you don't keep up I'll just leave you behind, Peter." Mikey told him, and Pete picked up the pace to keep up with them.    
It didn't take too long to find another bar, but most people seemed to be coming in pairs of groups, which was a bit more on the difficult side. He could always hunt with Max and go after a couple together, but he needed to stay alert and not be distracted by blood so he could actually train Max, and somehow he doubted that Pete would keep an eye out for them. 

"I can do this," Max assured himself, flexing his fingers and then balling them up into fists nervously. "I can. I can do this."    
"You have to," Pete said suddenly, sighing as he leaned against the building they were next to. "Because I'm not going to let Mikey stop you this time. If you're serious about this, you're going to get it right."    
"Peter-" Mikey tried to protest. Max wasn't ready to do it without a safety net and Pete knew it. If he killed someone this time, he'd probably never want to try again. Which, he figured, was Pete's tactic.    
"I'm serious," Pete interrupted Mikey.

Max looked to Pete and nodded. If he couldn't get it on his own, maybe he should just stay with Pete's way. It'd probably be the safest option until they could figure out that voice thing going on.    
"Alright, wish me luck guys." Max grinned at his Dads and went off towards the bar for his second shot.    
"Pete, telling him to 'do it or else' isn't the right way to train him." Mikey frowned at him. "He has to make mistakes to learn."

Pete looked to Mikey, face stoic. "If he fucks up, he can try again. He won't be able to get it right unless there's no safety net. If he thinks you'll save him from fucking up, he won't be able to stop. He'll rely on you." Pete had to admit that Mikey was right, in the fact that Max had to learn how to be a real vampire. With instincts as strong as his, the chances of him going savage from thirst increased a ton. He needed to be able to keep that voice at bay.

Mikey sighed and frowned, trying to look for where Max went off to but he didn't see him. "Shit, where is he?" They were supposed to be keeping an eye on him, not arguing with each other over the right or wrong way to help him. How could they help him if they couldn't even find him?

"Let him make his way," Pete grabbed Mikey's arm to keep him there. "He'll tell us how it went and then we'll take it from there. You want him to learn, don't you? You didn't really have a mentor." Pete looked away as he spoke, guilty for fucking up Mikey's life and then not even being able to help him out.

"Gee helped me." Mikey told him, frowning at Pete. "Glad he did. Didn't want to live off of baggies the rest of my life." He scowled a bit but then sighed. "It was my choice to reject you, Peter." Mikey said. "Don't blame yourself for that."

"Well I can't blame you for it either," Pete said, laughing dryly. "I fucked up your life. Ended it, technically."    
Mikey shrugged. "It is what it is. You're still my sweet little dude." He smirked at Pete before pulling him in to a half hug, mussing his hair.

"Oh come on." Pete laughed and pushed at his hands to get him to let go.    
The two were too wrapped up in themselves to realize Max had come back, and the only clue that gave it away was him snickering at their interactions.

Pete quickly straightened himself out, stepping away from Mikey, but Mikey still grinned a little.    
"Go okay?" Pete asked, hopeful. "No mess to clean up..?"

"We're all good." Max grinned at them, a bit of blood still left on his fangs but otherwise he looked totally fine.    
"Knew he could do it." Mikey grinned back.

"Please," Pete frowned. "You were worried he would fuck up. I knew he could do it. Just needed that push." He had full confidence in Max, despite how young he was. They needed to take the training wheels off, that was all.

"Think you'll be able to handle it yourself next time?" Mikey asked him.    
Max nodded. "Just have to make my own voice stronger than the other." He explained.

"That-a boy," Mikey smiled and smacked Max's back gently. "We can do this again in a few days when you need to drink again."   
"We have all of tour to get you prepared," Pete confirmed.

"Thanks." Max smiled at them. He didn't need to worry about killing anyone anymore. Time to start making the best out of this vampire thing.


	19. Chapter 19

Despite being adamant about not wanting to do it, Blurry inevitably ended up dozing off between Tyler and Josh, his head against the alien's shoulder as he was snoring lightly.

"He's s'dang cute," Tyler said quietly. "I'm just realizing how vain that sounds," he laughed.    
"Nah," Josh said, turning his head to kiss Blurry's gently. "He's definitely cuter than you." He might have blushed a little, but Blurry was asleep. He didn't mind as much.

Tyler smirked at seeing the pink fill Josh's cheeks. "I won't let you steal my Bee from me." He warned.    
"Hey, Tyler." The one in question turned to Brendon when he heard his name. "With those post possession powers, you probably have enough to push him out like this for maybe an hour a week." He told him. "Unless you have anyone you know that will spare dark magic for him. But don't include me in that list." He laughed a bit. "I don't like sharing."

"An hour a week?" Tyler smiled. "I assume that builds up if I wait longer?"    
"Yeah, ought to. Four hours a month or so." Brendon nodded. It wasn't much, but it was something. For Blurry. He deserved as much time as possible, honestly, after living such a solitary life.

"As for transferring him from host to host," Patrick piped up, "Should be like what I showed you. Just don't give him to any being that can't make a mindspace." He laughed a bit.

"How do I know what can and can't make a mindspace?" Tyler asked curiously. He definitely didn't want this to happen again. At all. Ever.

"Beings that have a lot of magic make a barrier in their brain to prevent possessions and the like, which block Blurry." Patrick answered, reciting from his angelic knowledge database. "All angels and any form of demon don't have them as well." He continued. "But even species differ from each other. Like you could probably put him in Pete's mind with no problem, but I wouldn't suggest trying it on Max."

"Hunh. Okay then." Tyler nodded.    
Josh heard his stomach rumble and he turned to kiss Blurry's head again. "Bluuurrryyyy," Josh said softly, easing him back into consciousness. "We gotta go eat, dude," he laughed. "Wake up."

Blurry groaned tiredly, not wanting to wake up now that he was comfortable and asleep. Comfortable? Asleep? Blurry's eyes shot open in confusion and he sat back up straight, looking around. "It... It-it wasn't a dream...?"

"Nope," Tyler smiled at him. "All real, Bee." Tyler stood up and stretched out a bit before offering a hand to Blurry, lifting him up and into a hug. "You napped and you're still here and we're gonna get like, takeout of some kind for us all to eat."

Blurry hugged into Tyler tightly, shaking a bit. "It-it's real..." He repeated, still unable to believe it. He looked over to Josh as he stood up too, spotting a small drool patch on his sleeve where he was resting. "O-oh my gosh. I'm sorry." Blurry buries his face against Tyler's neck in embarrassment.

"It's fine," Josh laughed a little. "It'll dry. No biggie. You looked so comfortable, I just couldn't move you." And by comfortable Josh definitely meant adorable. Something about Blurry was just so innocent and sweet.

"Sorry." Blurry mumbled out again regardless, still embarrassed that he made a mess on Josh. That he even fell asleep on him.    
"Come on, we're on food duty." Tyler laughed, breaking from the hug and grabbing the list that Dan made of what everyone wants from the local Chinese place.    
"Alright." Blurry managed a smile, taking a deep breath.

The three head out to go get the food, Blurry honestly just looking at everything and observing his surroundings and holding Tyler's hand as he drove. "Are- is it okay for me to be out like this..?" Blurry asked after a minute.

"Yeah, because you'll be going in with Josh to get the food while I stay in here, keeping the car warm." Tyler grinned as he parked the car, unlocking the doors for them.    
"I'm gonna what?!" Blurry wanted no part of that. Aside from maybe the being with Josh part.    
"Jishwa'll keep you safe." Tyler assured him, looking to the alien for help convincing him.

"But-!! Tyler, I can't-"    
"Of course you can," Josh said as he opened Blurry's door for him. "I'll be right there with you the whole time."    
"But I- I look so weird.." Blurry squeaked out quietly, frowning.

"You look fine." Josh told him with a smile, grabbing his hand to help him out of the car.    
Blurry looked to Tyler helplessly as Josh ushered him away from the car and towards the building. As he did, Blurry's markings and red eyes faded due to being forced into a situation he was not comfortable with in the slightest.

Josh pulled him inside, keeping a tight reassuring grip on his hand as he told them the order.    
"Joshie," Blurry pouted at him. "I don't- can I please go back to the car? There are people in here.." He looked around, praying no one would recognize him. It wasn't too busy but there was a small crowd, and Blurry could swear all of them were staring at him.

"They aren't looking at you, Bee." Josh assured him, using Tyler's nickname to try and calm him down. "It might sound strange the way I put it, but they don't care about you." He told him, squeezing his hand. "You're just someone passing by that they're only going to see for a minute."

Blurry sighed and looked down at his feet, then let go of Josh's hand, despite wanting the close comfort. Seeing two men hold hands might get them some unpleasant looks. He didn't want Josh to deal with that. He didn't want to deal with that. "Kay," he said quietly.

"You'll be alright." Josh assured him, handing him the list that Dan made and grabbing a menu so they could figure out who wanted what and if they had to call someone and tell them they didn't have it. Thankfully, everything seemed to be there, and Josh handed the person behind the counter the menu with the items circled, paid for the bucket load of food, and then waited with Blurry off to the side as they prepared the food. Josh knew he still looked worried, so he did his best to keep him distracted. "They have free green tea over there." Josh mentioned, pointing over to the other end of the counter where there was a kettle and some cups. "Want to try some?" Blurry liked food and things related to food, so that should be a good distraction right?

"Um," Blurry eyed it. It looked like it might be good, and he loved trying things, but.. "No, not right now," he said quietly. "Too hot for tea.."

"You sure?" Josh asked, grabbing his arm and leading him over there anyway. "We can ask for some ice? Make our own iced tea?" He smiled, trying to get Blurry to smile back at him.

"J-Joshie," Blurry stumbled a little as Josh pulled him over, face flushing as he frowned, embarrassed and frightened, using one hand to pull his hood over his head.

"Blurry, no one is looking at you." Josh tried to convince him again, grabbing his hands with a small frown. He didn't want Blurry to be scared. This was his first time out in the world like this on his own. "Do you want to go back to the car?" He asked, hoping he wouldn't want to, but he wouldn't keep him here against his will.

"I-" Blurry stuttered. Josh was upset. He didn't like Josh to be upset. Josh should always be happy. He sighed softly. "I want to," Blurry said quietly, looking away. "But- I'm not- I'm not gonna. Could you, um, get me a cup of tea...?"

Josh nodded and went to grab him a cup, handing it over to him. "Hey, it's okay if this is too much to handle at once." Josh told him. "Throwing you out here like this must be pretty scary."

Blurry took a sip, and he found he really liked the taste. It wasn't orange juice, but it was good. He managed a small smile at Josh from behind the cup, hoodie giving him sweater paw. "I-I'll be okay. I have you with me, like Ty said."

Josh kept looking at him, not really realizing he was staring. Blurry looked exactly like Tyler, yet they also looked totally different to Josh. He wasn't sure why, but he found Blurry to be cuter than his best friend, even though they have the same appearance.    
"Joshie?" Blurry asked with a slight frown, not sure why he was staring at him.

"Hm? O-oh," Josh's eyes widened a little as he realized he was staring, and a bright blush tinged his cheeks as he looked away. "Sorry," he laughed nervously. "I-uh-," thankfully, Josh was cut off by their order being announced. "Let's go grab it," he said with a small smile.

Blurry finished off the drink, deciding that he actually kinda liked it, and helped Josh with the bags of food. They were warm and everything smelled delicious. He didn't even want to eat it immediately. Just being able to feel the warmth and smell how good it was was a wonderful experience on its own.    
When they got to the car, Blurry sat in the backseat and offered to keep the food on his lap for the ride home, mostly so he could keep feeling and smelling things.

"How'd ya do?" Tyler asked curiously, hopeful that it was a good experience for him. "Josh protect you?"    
Blurry blushed a little, but thankfully no one was able to see it. "Y-yeah, Joshie saved me," he said, giggling quietly. "It was scary, Ty."    
"But he did it!" Josh said in triumph, big smile on his face.

"I did it." Blurry repeated with a small smile, a bit less enthusiastic than Josh though. "Tyty, you should drink more tea." He decided, hugging the bags of food close as Tyler started to drive.

"Oh yeah?" Tyler asked, smiling at him from the rearview. "Jishwa git you to try some, hunh?"    
"Took some convincing," Josh noted. "But I guess the end result was worth it."

Blurry smiles again, feeling a lot more comfortable in the privacy of the car. He adjusted a bit to take the hood back off his head and relax, looking outside as Tyler drove.    
"I know I'm a pain." Blurry spoke up after a minute. "But-but thanks for not giving up on me."

"The last thing you are, Bee, is a pain," Tyler said, seriously, though smiling. "We love you. I love you. You have no idea how worried I was today, that I might lose you."

Blurry kicked his feet a bit in his seat. "Y-you know you'd have an easier life without me." Blurry insisted, which made Josh turn in his seat and frown at him.    
"Easier doesn't mean better." Josh said. "Our lives would suck without you."

"No no," Tyler said. "Bee has a point. Our lives would be easier. In fact, my life would be way easier without either of you, so... Josh, you're out of the band," Tyler smirked, pulling into the nearest parking lot and coming to a stop, unlocking the car doors.

"Wha-Ty!" Blurry frowned at him, not liking it when Tyler kicks Josh out.    
"That's fine. I'll just start my own new band with Blurry since you don't need him either." Josh said nonchalantly as he helped Bee with the bags. "Twelve Sailors."

"What? No way," Tyler said, "That's gotta be some kind of copyright infringement."    
"Can't be, you never copyrighted anything," Josh retorted.    
"Tyler...." Blurry looked like his eyes were about to fill up with tears. "I wanna stay in the band.."    
"So you admit you're part of the band?" Tyler perked up, grinning. "Great, Josh get back in. We have a reunion tour to get ready for!"

"Wait-I-I didn't say-" Blurry stammered, unable to keep up with all the commotion.    
"Come on." Josh laughed as he helped Blurry out of the car with his free hand. "Let's get our whole band inside."

Blurry knew Josh probably just meant to help him up, but he kept his grip on Josh's hand anyway. He liked being able to feel it. With his own body. "You guys are such jerks," he commented quietly, a small smile making its way onto his face again.

"Thought you were used to that by now." Tyler teased, bumping his hip against Blurry's before holding the door open for them.    
"Food!" Josh called out as they entered their rehearsal room, and everyone flocked over like they hadn't eaten in decades.

"I don't think I'll ever be used to any of this, Ty," Blurry laughed as everyone grabbed their orders, and he waited until everyone had theirs to grab his own. He had his own order. Not sharing Tyler's or Josh's. His own order. It made him pause for a moment as he realized it.

"You alright?" Tyler asked him as he sat down with his plate of food, looking at the Tulpa curiously.    
"This is my own.." Blurry said, looking down at his plate. "You don't need to have me switch out to have me try food.." That is just totally surreal.    
"Sit down with us." Josh grinned at Blurry, leaving space between him and Tyler for the Tulpa to squish between.

Blurry took another moment of two to process it all, then nodded. "Yeah, definitely, of course," he smiled and smooshed himself between them, taking a deep breath of the smell of his food. His food. It was, of course, time to dig in hardcore.

Eating beside Josh and Tyler was a strange but wonderful experience. Being able to talk about how good it is, laughing, feeling close and warm, Blurry just about thought he'd erupt into tears. "Thank you for letting me live." Blurry said to Tyler. "I know I steal away a lot of your time and I'm a hassle to deal with, but it's only been a little bit of time and-and you guys accept me and love me and-" Blurry wiped his eyes against the back of his hand.

"You've got that right," Tyler said, smiling softly at his counterpart. "We love you. So much, dude. Like, probably too much. You're pretty much one of the best things to ever happen to me ever, I think. You're no hassle." He went to wipe away a tear that fell from Blurry's eye onto his cheek, then mussing up his hair with a dumb laugh.

Blurry rested his head on Tyler as he took another forkful of rice. "I-I can eat and enjoy a meal with both of you at once.." A month ago he never would have thought it was possible, but there they were. He nuzzled against Tyler's shoulder, missing being in his mind but still liking being out like this.

"And this won't be the last time," Tyler assured him. "Love you, Bee," he reminded him.    
"Ty, why do you call me Bee?" Blurry asked with a slight giggle. He loved the nickname, but he totally wanted to know the thought process behind it.

"Because you're an adorable harmless wonderful bumblebee." Tyler smiled. "Buzzing around and doing your own thing."   
"Adorable bumblebee. Makes enough sense to me." Josh agreed. 

"You sayin' I bumble around?" Blurry asked.    
"Is that wrong?" Josh laughed, nudging him with his elbow.    
"No, just wonderin'," Blurry laughed. "I know I'm kind of a klutz."    
"Yeah and it's adorable," Tyler grinned at him.

Blurry smiled as he finished up his food, going right back to snuggling against his two faves. He used his fork to steal a piece of chicken off of Josh's plate, smiling at him innocently.

"You're a goober," Josh said, laughing a bit and moving an arm to defend his food. No way he was going to let Blurry steal his meal. No matter how cute he was.

"Sorry." Blurry laughed quietly again before snuggling back against Tyler's shoulder. "I miss home." He said. Being out of Tyler's mind was fun, but it's been such a long day and he just wants to snooze away.

"You could head back in early and save the rest of the magic for later," Brendon suggested, overhearing from his nearby spot.

Blurry instinctively winced at hearing Brendon's voice, but it sounded like a good idea. They could save the magic for if they really needed it later or something. "Yeah, I wanna go back." Blurry agreed. Leaving somewhere you'd been for nearly five years could really make you homesick.

"So do I just absorb him back?" Tyler asked, and Brendon shrugged, sitting back in his seat.    
"You could," the demon answered. "Blurry could also do it himself. If he dematerializes himself he'll hop into whoever's closest."

"Then I'll let him do that for when he's ready." Tyler decided, smiling at his tulpa.    
Blurry took another deep breath, just taking some time to savor the feeling of feeling. "I love you guys." Blurry told Tyler and Josh again. "Thanks, really, I'm just really exhausted." He admitted with a small laugh.

"We love you too," Tyler said as he pulled him into a hug. "Wanna hop back into Josh so we can definitely get it right?" Tyler laughed, looking to Josh to see if he would be okay with that.

Josh just finished up his food and nodded at the request. "My mind's always open for you, BF." He reminded him.    
"BF?" Blurry asked, raising an eyebrow at him, wondering where that nickname came from. It probably just had to do with his name, but his cheeks admittedly turned a bit pink at another meaning it could have.

"BF," Josh nodded. "Blurryface. I know you don't like your full name, so," he shrugged.    
"As long as it doesn't stand for best friend then you can stay in the band," Tyler said, smirking.

Blurry couldn't help but to laugh. "No one will take the place of Tyler as Josh's best friend." He said.    
"Darn right." Josh said, pulling Blurry into a hug. "But you do come close."   
"Joshie, don't make Tyler angry at you." He laughed a bit, letting himself get comfortable in the hug so he could figure out how to get back into his mind.

Josh hugged Blurry a bit tighter, resting his head in the crook of his neck until he felt him disappear.    
_ Safe and sound.  _ Josh heard. In Blurry's voice.

"You sound like yourself." Josh pointed out as Blurry made himself comfortable on one of the beds in the room.    
_ I do?  _ Blurry asked, reaching out to pet Josh's mind cat and seeing that his hands were black. What? These looked like his own hands, not how he looked last time he visited Josh's mind.

_ I look like myself!  _ Blurry exclaimed excitedly.  _ Joshie, I look like me!  _ This was awesome. He kept his shape now! He still really wanted to go home though.    
"He ready to come back?" Tyler asked.

_ I miss home.  _ Blurry said again, snuggling against the mind cat with a small smile. He wished he could feel how soft the cat definitely looked, but that's the drawback of being back in the mindspace. It's what he was used to mostly anyway.

"He's set," Josh told Tyler, who nodded and put a hand on the alien's shoulder, focusing to try and do that thing Patrick showed him how to do. Soon enough he felt Blurry sigh and heard,  _ missed you Ty.  _

Tyler sighed in relief as well, glad to have his tulpa back in his mind. "I missed you too, Bee." Not going to the mindspace before he fell asleep had been really strange these couple days without him. "I'm glad you're back, safe and sound."

_ Good to be back.  _ Blurry flopped onto his bed, rolling himself up in his blanket and giggling.  _ Hey, Ty, I'm a burrito! _

Tyler laughed and smiled, just so glad to have him back. Things could get back to normal now. "Love you, Bee." He told him. "Any time you want to come back out, just let me know. Or else I'll just force you out when you least expect it."

_ I'll keep you updated.  _ Blurry promised. _ I love you. I'll let you know when I wake up.  _ He closed his eyes and got as comfortable as the mindspace could allow, falling asleep with a small smile on his face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what!!! this is the last chapter!!!!  
> i hope you guys have enjoyed this journey!!!  
> but that of course doesn't mean that its over :^)  
> for future updates, check back to our tumblr @mythomusicians and we'll be throwing out some more fics here and there  
> there's gonna be one more major one, the rest are gonna be side fun stuff  
> as always, please tell us if youve enjoyed this, anything you think needs improvement, etc!!!!
> 
> thank you all very much, luv u guise  
> xoxoxo


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